


Death of a Bachelor

by somepeoplearewild



Series: Death Of A Bachelor [1]
Category: Best Song Ever - One Direction (Music Video), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, American AU, Angst, Attempt at Humor, F/M, Genderswap, Nerd Harry, Sexual Content, The Styles Triplets, Ziam elounor larry gryles but only if you squint, everything will be explained in the story notes, it's complicated - Freeform, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 10:33:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 55,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6607522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somepeoplearewild/pseuds/somepeoplearewild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marcel is a real nerd.</p><p>Veronica is a real bitch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic might be kind of confusing so I'm going to go ahead and lay a few things out that might not make sense if you don't read this note.
> 
> This fic has all of the normal characters, but I changed some things about them.
> 
> I made Harry, Liam, Louis, Nick, and Stan into girls because that's how I am. Nick is Nicole. Stan is Constance. The other ones are pretty obvious.
> 
> Also, Perrie, Danielle, and Cara Develigne (idk how to spell that) are guys. Percy. Daniel. Cameron.
> 
> Then, I was like "this isn't confusing enough" so I also messed with their families.
> 
> There are 3 Styles siblings: Edward (who is basically a 2013 Harry punk edit), Harry, and Marcel. 
> 
> Zayn is in this fic. He's Veronica's older brother, and Veronica is kind of like a curvier version of Waliyha. There aren't any other Maliks tho :(
> 
> The rest of the people's families are the same.
> 
> This story is set in the U.S. You pick where. I don't care.
> 
> I think that's all.
> 
> So yeah, here it is.
> 
> Death of a Bachelor - Panic! At The Disco

"Okay, girls, gather round," Harry cheers, the soft curls at the end of her ponytail bouncing as she flops herself onto one of the several colourful, pastel throw pillows that she had arranged in a circle on the floor.

Her friends from school all fall onto their pillows cooperatively, except Louise and Nicole who bicker over the last seat next to Harry.

Liam, being the mediator that she is, gives Louise her spot next to Harry, which does about nothing because Louise insists that she is Harry's right hand lady, and therefore she should get the right hand side, which starts a whole new round of arguments for another twenty minutes before Harry's older brother Edward pops his head in the door and threatens to spit on the girls in their sleep.

After the girls are done gagging and being dramatic, Harry hushes everyone, and carries on with her activity.

"So, since we are having the sleep over at my house this week, I have decided that we should play some classic slumber party games. All in favour?"

Five pretty manicured hands shoot into the air, causing Harry to grin triumphantly while Veronica and Eleanor groan.

"Yay! So, I was thinking maybe like we could start off with FMK then move onto never have i ever then maybe truth or dare if we feel up to it."

"I'm going first!" Louise yells, looking straight at Liam, the more bashful and conservative member of the group. "Fuck, marry, kill. Niall. Daniel. Zayn."

"Can we leave family out of this?" Veronica pleads to no effect because Louise is evil.

Liam blushes, but answers nonetheless. "Um, fuck Niall. Marry Zayn. Kill my ex."

"You'd love to marry Zayn wouldn't you!" Nicole crows, making kissy lips at Liam until she hides her face in her pillow from embarrassment.

Veronica shoots Nicole a deadly glare as she rubs Liam's back comfortingly until she pulls her head up and calls on Harry.

"Um, Cameron D. Dylan O.... and Angry Alex."

Harry grins coyly at the group causing everyone to snicker in anticipation of her answer. The first two guys are quite popular, like the girls, with Cameron being a part time model and Dylan on the lacrosse team, but the last boy, Alex, is notorious for being the leader of the "emo" freaks, who are actually punk, but these vapid teenage girls don't know the difference or care to find out.

"I've already fucked Cameron, and I've already dated Dylan. So, I guess I would fuck Dylan again, then marry Cam and kill Alex because ew."

The girls all laughed, even Veronica who didn't much care who you were or what you looked like. Although far from being morally upright, Veronica likes to think she has the tightest grip on reality. Being the token ethnic girl of the school's popular people, she isn't a stranger to wake up calls courtesy of some of the more racist people in their mostly white town. In a way, she understands what it's like to be unfairly excluded, which is why she feeds into the groups cruelty just enough that she's not a target. Of course, some of the girls still don't like her that much, which is why Veronica groans internally when Louise calls her name a few rounds later.

"Hm," Louise grins deviously. "I have to pick some very special people for our little Ronnie. How about..." Louise's cold eyes snap onto Veronica as a sadistic smile takes over her face. "Percy."

The room falls silent at the name that Louise spits at Veronica, almost as if it's a weapon. It's so typical of Louis to do something as petty as try to dredge up Veronica's three year relationship, which had ended horribly only a month ago when Percy had publicly accused her of cheating on him all the time and with everyone. It worked out that Veronica can't even get a boy to look her way anymore while Percy is still getting all the sympathy fucks he could ever want. Not that Veronica even wants to date anymore. All the boys within their social rank are douchebags or taken so it's not even worth the effort of winning their interest back.

"Ben."

The college boy who had obsessively stalked her for a year and was also part of the reason Percy was so paranoid about her cheating.

Everyone holds their breath in anticipation of the final name, aside from Veronica and Louise who are glaring at each other across the circle.

"Marcel."

Everyone gasps in horror, even Harry who should at least stand up a little for her brother. Unfortunately, Marcel is the school leper. The level of nerdiness he has achieved in only 16 years of life is horrific... at least, in the vain minds of most of their school's student body. His taped horn-rimmed glasses and awful sweater vests combined with his clumsiness and habit of ruining the test curve dooms him. Veronica's family only moved to town a little over three years ago, so she has no idea of why he's such a social pariah. He seems pretty standard to her. She suspects it must have something to do with Harry's never-ending quest to dissociate herself from her twin. Harry is the type of bitch to has to be the only bitch. Despite her sweet southern belle act, she might actually be an incarnation of Satan.

Veronica grits her teeth, resisting every urge to lunge across the circle and throat punch Louise. Veronica must look absolutely terrifying when she smiles in the least friendly way, feeling as if each of her teeth are razor sharp. Veronica rarely gets pissed off, but when she does...

"You must think you're so clever, you arrogant little idiot. Tell me, when was the last time you were in a relationship that didn't involve picking Eleanor's pubic hairs out of your teeth in a janitor's closet?" Ignoring the gasps, Veronica shoots up and stomps toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Harry bites, oddly more protective of her asshole friend than her own brother.

"To fuck Marcel," Veronica spits, slamming the door behind her, only to come face to face with a pair of wide green eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason i'm posting this on here (even though it is clearly below my usual standards of writing) is bc I was trying to test this out on wattpad first but honestly the effort required to get readers on that site is ridiculous.
> 
> Also, I have to basically blacklist my fic into the same category as porn fics on Wattpad because I said fuck. Literally, who doesn't say fuck? 
> 
> Anyway, I'm posting this piece of shit over here to see if it's actually as terrible as I think, so any feedback (negative or positive) would be appreciated. 
> 
> I'm probably going to delete this work if I can't get any feedback that would help me improve this because I don't want anyone on this site to find this if it sucks.
> 
> Anyway, sorry for whining like a little baby. The next 4 chapters are already written.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention that this fic is written from the POV of an extremely shallow and not PC person so excuse any offensive language that might come up. None of it reflects me as a person. Except all the times that I say fuck. Those represent me.

"Oh hey Marcel!" she blurts out hoping to sound casual but actually ends up yelling like a crazy person. A panicky warped smile tries to conceal the true mortification she is currently experiencing.

His shocked baby deer eyes remain shocked and baby deer-like behind his huge glasses.

"Funny meeting you here... in the hallway... of your house," she tries, nervously babbling on as she rarely does.

A slow look of concern overtakes his face as Veronica's panicking becomes increasingly obvious. "I'm just gonna go to my room, and we can pretend this never happened."

Marcel's words cause something mean and conceited click inside Veronica's mind, and she throws her hands on her hips obstinately. "Why? Do you not want it to happen?"

"No offence, but you're kind of rude to me on a daily basis, so no. Not really."

"But look at me," Veronica seriously states, motioning towards her being, complete with flowing hair, glowing skin, and long legs. She should be the object of his desires. He should be jerking off to her vacation pictures every night before bed. His breath should literally be taken away just standing this close to her. He should have already came in his pants— twice. It doesn't make any sense.

"But listen to you."

"Listen to you, _asshole_."

"I'm not going to bow down in complete devotion to you just because you're the first pretty girl to look my way," he sighs, pushing his glasses higher on his nose.

"Who says I'm even looking your way and also ha! You _do_ think I'm pretty."

"Okay then stop trying to whore yourself off on me and go back to your little slumber party."

Veronica deflates, remembering what just happened. "I can't," she huffs pathetically, looking down at her lime green toenails.

Marcel fake pouts and mocks Veronica in a patronising tone. "Why? Are they being mean?"

Veronica feels angry tears start to well up in her eyes, but she keeps staring at the ground.

"How can you expect me to pity you when you're one of them?"

"I don't know," Veronica tries to snip at him. It comes out pathetic and weak, and that makes her want to cry even more. She's too busy wicking away her tears with her fingers so her mascara won't run to notice the look of sympathy cross the boy's face.

"Come on then."

Her head snaps up in surprise but she follows him anyway. His room is a floor higher than the rest of the house, and it doesn't have a door. The staircase leads directly into a large room, which was probably an attic at one point in time. The walls are white, but they're covered in posters of superheroes and framed comic books.

Veronica would never admit it to anyone, but it's not an accident that she always appears in her brother's room for some quality time when he's marathoning Marvel movies.

Her eyes move around the rest of the room. There's a standard desk with an expensive looking desktop, and an entertainment centre, complete with a flatscreen and several gaming systems, and two beanbags in front of it. His bed is in the farthest corner of the room. It's at least a king size, and the blankets are fluffy and white. It's honestly the most attractive thing Veronica has ever seen, especially after the night she's had.

"Why are you staring at my bed like that?"

Veronica bundles her thick, black hair up in hands and drops it behind her back, trying to seem casual like she wasn't just eyefucking a piece of furniture. "Like what?"

"You're weirder than I thought you'd be."

"Think of me often?" she smiles over her shoulder, then sauntering over to his desk to inspect the contents. Books. Papers. Boring.

"Only when I'm torturing voodoo dolls."

"Kinky." Veronica hears a sigh then the creaking of a bed being sat on. "What?"

"Why is everything so sexual with you?"

"I dunno. I'm not normally." She turns around and bites her lip awkwardly, pulling at the edge of her black crop top. It's not normal for her to feel self conscious as people usually don't call her out when she's being a little shit.

Veronica goes over to the bed and sits by Marcel, and they talk.

And talk.

And talk.

Does Veronica ever stop talking??

"No, you didn't!"

"I did. And she poured a milkshake in my lap."

"She didn't!"

"She did."

"Oh you poor child!"

"You literally did that to me last year with spaghetti."

"Oh yeah."

Veronica flops on her back in the middle of the bed and blows out a long breath of air. "I'm such a bitch. You're literally so nice." Her sad honey eyes match his gaze. "You're so nice."

Marcel keeps quiet as Veronica yawns, showing off her sharp little teeth. She looks evil even when she's sleepy. Although, that might be the way she's plucked her eyebrows that gives her resting bitchface.

"Veronica?"

Marcel sits up, but immediately softens when he sees the girl has passed out. He pushes her higher on the opposite side of the bed then clicks the lamp off, leaving them in darkness.

[][][][]

Veronica wakes up with a mouth full of t-shirt. She's also curled up in a tiny ball and there is something heavy as fuck draped over her body. For a second, she panics, thinking she's gotten involved in a one night stand, which she never ever would. Her eyes slowly travel up to a pair of pouty pink lips and rosy cheeks, puffing slightly as the boy above her snores lightly. His hair is plastered to his forehead with some sort of sticky gel, but it only makes him seem cuter.

"Marcel isn't cute!" Veronica whisper yells at herself.

"Rude," Marcel grumbles, except his normally high-pitched voice is gravelly and deep and Veronica about passes out in his arms.

"You're the rude one feeling me up in my sleep."

Marcel's eyes remain closed, but a smirk spreads across his lips. "It's actually quite the contrary. You're a very cuddly sleeper."

"Fuck off." Veronica goes to snuggle into his chest but pulls back like she's been shocked. She slaps Marcel's arms as he laughs at her. She can't be growing fond of him. Nothing that's happened can leave this room.

"VERONICA!" a girl shouts, clearly marching angrily around the second floor of the house. "GET FUCKING IN MY ROOM NOW!"

"Young lady!" another voice yells back. "Language!"

"Sorry mom!"

Veronica gives Marcel a small smile, which he doesn't return, but slinks out of his bed nonetheless. She's still a slave to her image, and she can't risk her relationship with the girls any more than she already has. She thinks this as if they don't personally offend each other at least once a day.

When Veronica's foot hits the last step, she has half a mind to run back up the stairs. Six angry glares meet her eyes.

"What the fuck were you doing _up there_?" Harry seethes, her pretty brown hair in an angry rat's nest on her head.

"Fucking Marcel," Veronica smirks back, shouldering her way into the pink and yellow bedroom.

A curly head pops into the room. "Lies. I heard you two clucking like hens all night." Edward then shifts his voice high-pitched, and Veronica isn't sure if he's mocking her or Marcel. "Did you hear about what I saw? Hehehehehe!" Ed bats his eyelashes stupidly and covers his mouth like a blushing school girl.

"Shut up. Why don't you go jerk off to more pictures of your cousin?"

"I can't believe he told you! That was an accident! I didn't even know! I- fuck you!"

The girls all burst into laughter, letting Veronica know that she's gotten away with whatever last night was. For now.


	3. Chapter 3

Veronica has no idea of what the actual fuck she's doing, but she's just lied to her whole lunch table so she could leave and is now stalking the library for a head of precisely slicked down chesnut hair. She smiles excitedly with her target in sight but quickly wipes it off her face so she won't seem too eager when she approaches him.

"Hey Marcel!"

The boy in a bowtie and a buttoned vest actually jumps, fumbling with the book in his hands. His eyebrows furrow as his eyes travel from the impractical 6 inch heels up the long tan legs to the denim miniskirt past the fuzzy blue crop top all the way to a pair of frighteningly cheerful amber eyes.

"Why are you talking to me? We're at school. Someone could see you."

"I didn't wear this outfit for _my_ viewing pleasure," Veronica winks, then back tracks remembering what he'd said about her being overly sexual. The weird thing is, it's only with him. It's like she doesn't know what to say so she just blurts the first inappropriate thing she can think of. "Sorry. That's not what I meant. Can I sit?" She motioned at the spot beside Marcel on the couch.

"Uh... Sureee. Why not."

Veronica squeaks happily and falls onto the sofa cushion beside Marcel. "Whatcha readin?" she asks, leaning over into his personal space to look at his book.

"The- uh... The..."

Veronica withholds her amusement as best as possible, knowing he probably has a great view of her cleavage right now. Also why is she presenting herself to him? Why is she presenting herself to anyone? People present themselves to her. Not the other way around.

Anyhow, Veronica decides to take pity on the stuttering lad and leans back. "What was that?"

"The Great Gatsby."

"Oh! I love that book!" Veronica's eyes widen as she realises her slip up. "I, uh, mean I love what I read on Spark Notes. Psh. I didn't actually read the book. Do I look like a...." The panic must be growing in her eyes while she rambles on, digging herself an even deeper grave. Marcel raises his eyebrow at her, daring her to say the word. ".... nerd."

"You don't have to pretend to be book stupid." Veronica sighs in relief, but too soon it seems as Marcel continues. "You're already stupid in plenty of other aspects."

"Rude, but I deserved it."

"You deserve much more than that."

"Oh really?" Veronica raises her eyebrow suggestively, this time successfully causing Marcel to blush beet red. She crosses her legs, gently resting her hands on her knee, then shoots him a deadly smoulder. "Are you gonna punish me?"

Lucky for Marcel, the bell rings then and he's able to escape the vixen, who giggles evilly as he scrambles to collect his things and get the fuck up out of there.

"I'll see you later!" Veronica laughs, standing up to go to her next class as well. She looks down to fix her skirt, then groans when she sees a pair of muddy Timberland boots appear. "What do you want?" Her voice comes out more exhausted and less icily than she was hoping it would.

"Why were you talking to that geek?"

"I dunno. Why is it any of your business?" Veronica glares at Percy, his cold grey eyes glaring straight back into hers.

"We may have broken up, but you're still mine."

Veronica bursts out laughing, but it's sarcastic and angry. "Do you fucking hear yourself when you speak? We're over. That means _this_ -" She frantically motions all around her body. "-is no longer yours. You gave that up."

"I'll decide when I'm finished with you."

"Um ya already decided that when you fucked everything with legs in a 10-mile radius!"

The librarian shushes them, but Veronica fixes the woman with a murderous glare.

"I don't want anything to do with you. Seriously go fuck yourself, Percy. I would honestly have sex with a cactus before I even thought about thinking about you."

"Watch yourself, bitch. Wouldn't want your little meetings with Marcel to get around the school."

"Oh, you mean like _you_ got around the school?"

Percy angrily runs his fingers through his blonde hair and stomps away, leaving Veronica to float on a raging cloud of fire and destruction all the way to English class.

[][][][]

Veronica makes kissy faces at the other girls as they part ways to go to their separate sports practises. She, Nicole, and Liam are in volleyball while the rest of the girls are cheerleaders.

Veronica wants to be a cheerleader, but she can't do the stunts because her ankles are too weak and also she may have broken her partner's leg during tryouts but that's beside the point. She's actually quite good at volleyball. If Nicole weren't so much freakishly taller than the net, Veronica would probably be the best.

The girls enter the locker room and start changing into their knee pads and little black shorts. Veronica prefers to wear just a sports bra instead of a shirt because her thick hair keeps her hotter than the other girls, even in its customary practise ponytail.

"Do you think we'll have to run laps today?" Liam asks, pulling her fitted t shirt over her dark blonde hair.

"Probably. Alicia always misses her serves." Veronica smirks, knowing that the girl that she's talking about changes right behind her.

The girl scoffs and slams her locker, causing Veronica to turn to her. "Do something about it," Veronica snarls. She's never actually been in a fight, but she's pretty sure she'd win. Liam makes Veronica participate in her kick boxing lessons sometimes, and she's not horrible. Liam, however, can probably crack somebody's sternum.

Liam looks down and huffs a laugh under her breath at her friend's audacity. Veronica is quite the little firecracker when she wants to be.

The girl looks back and forth between Liam and Veronica before sighing and leaving the room. The other girls follow with their water bottles, making their way into the gymnasium.

The coach calls the girls together then assigns them to different sides of the net. No warm up today.

Nicole lines up her feet and pops the ball over the net, starting the game. It's a pretty boring back and forth for a while. That is, until a tense figure bursts through the gym doors, scuttling toward the coach. It's Marcel in all of his paisley socked glory reporting to the coach that the principal needs her to fill out a few forms. He _would_ stay after school to help the principal. He sits down on the bench while the coach fills out the papers. His eyes catch Veronica's and she offers him a little smile, rolling the ball around in her hands.

"Sorry to interrupt your romantic moment, but are you gonna fucking serve the ball?" Nicole yells from across the court. All the girls snicker.

Veronica rolls her eyes, but serves anyway. She's about two seconds from letting it go when Nicole points at Marcel then mimes sucking a dick.

Now, she's mad.

She sprints to the front of the net just as Liam is bumping the ball upwards, and leaps like a fucking soaring eagle. It's like a scene in a movie where everything slows down and Veronica zeros in on the ball like she's only done a few times. Her hand snaps the ball in just the right way so that it goes hurling right smack into Nicole's face.

The girl cries out and grabs her face.

"MALIK!" the coach roars.

Veronica can't hide the satisfaction on her face as she walks over to the coach. "Yes ma'am?"

"I don't know what that was, but you better get your act together. For that, you can go ahead and follow Marcel here back to the principal's office." The woman thrusts the clipboard of papers back into the boy's chest.

"Th-Thank you," he squeaks before scuttling towards the exit with Veronica in tow.

"It seems like you're just popping up everywhere lately," Veronica says conversationally. The gym is at least a 10 minute walk back to the main building.

"I could say the same about you. Nice playing by the way."

Veronica smiles at the compliment, which was actually sarcasm, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. "Thanks. I've been waiting to spike a ball in her face since I moved here."

"Why wait?" Marcel, surprisingly, smiles back.

"I had to make sure I was indispensable to the team first. Oh wait!" Veronica stops suddenly, walking over to a bench and throwing her foot up onto it. "I need to take these knee pads off. They're itchy." She starts sliding the knee pad down her leg in a way that's a little more provocative than necessary. Her ponytail brushes her face as she leans down, pushing her butt out in the direction of a certain someone.

She repeats the process of sliding her knee pad down her leg one more time before bouncing up and turning to Marcel with a deceptively bright smile. She takes in his red face and feels accomplished. There's just something about flirting with him that's so much more fun than with the other boys.

"Let's go."

[][][][]

The waiting room to the principal's office is pretty drab. The only thing that's keeping her alive despite the boredom is the way Marcel looks about ready to pass out. She's been leaned over the counter for about ten minutes, with her cleavage just about ready to fall out of her blue sports bra. "So you're basically an after school secretary?"

"Sometimes," he mumbles, pretending to sort a stack of papers when he's really just been paper clipping random things together.

"Do you get paid?"

"No."

"That's bullshit."

"It counts as community service," he replies sensibly. It gets on Veronica's nerves. She needs to bring a little chaos back to the environment.

"I think it'd be fun to fuck in here. I've always wanted to do it on a desk."

Marcel splutters, coughing uncontrollably as he chokes on his own spit.

The principal steps out of his office. "Malik," he calls, raising his eyebrow at the scene.

"Poor Marcel just choked," she smiles sweetly. Veronica follows the man into his office.

"What about poor Nicole?"

"Poor Nicole deserved it," she scowls.

The man sits down and motions for Veronica to do the same. "I'm not here to assess whether or not she deserved it. Regardless of what she did, you still acted out of line. This has been a recurring issue, and for that I cannot let you off with just a warning again."

Veronica's face drops. "No..." she gasps quietly.

"For the next month, you'll be spending your afternoons in my office, working with Marcel."

"No!" she shouts, shooting out of her chair. "I can't! I have volleyball!"

"On your off days."

"I have a life!" she shrieks dramatically.

"You can have your life on the weekends. I want to see you in my office every Tuesday and Wednesday from 3 to 6 for the next four weeks. You're dismissed."

Veronica shrieks angrily again and stomps out of the office. She takes one look at Marcel's terrified eyes then yells at him. "I GUESS I'LL FUCKIN SEE YOU TOMORROW." With that she stomps out of the building and back to practise, which she's forced to sit out of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think this is turning out more crackfic-ish than I intended because I have made Veronica so entirely dramatic that her lines sometimes read like a telenovela.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who commented and gave kudos on the last update. I really appreciate it :)


	4. Chapter 4

Veronica is not having a good day. Her friends have relentlessly taken the piss out of her all day despite agreeing that Nicole deserved what she got for being a bitch all the time. What Nicole got was actually two black eyes and a bruised nose.

Veronica feels relief flood her body when the final bell rings. She's so past done with everyone and everything. She just wants to go home and sleep for 84 years but she can't because of this stupid punishment. Her feet drag all the way to the office.

Marcel greets her amicably as she collapses in the rolly chair beside his. "Good afternoon."

"Shut the fuck up I want to die," she whines back dramatically, limply flopping backwards in her seat. "What am I even supposed to do??"

Marcel disappears into a closet then comes back out with 5 heavy packs of paper. "You get to refill the printers. It's the easiest job we have."

Veronica groans, but she gets to work behind Marcel, pulling out the various trays and filling them. After a while, Veronica breaks the silence. "Can't I just blow you and you tell O'Malley that I worked for today?"

"I don't want your blow jobs," Marcel reminds her.

"Why not though?!"

"You're evil and manipulative and judgemental and vain and-"

"Okay okay! Geez..." Veronica glances over her shoulder, wondering why Marcel doesn't want her if even just for her good looks. He's not exactly in a position to pick and choose. Neither is Veronica at the moment, but things will eventually go back to normal. Probably around homecoming time when guys will be lining up to ask her because this is the first year she's ever been available. "Are you going to homecoming?" Veronica wonders aloud.

"I have to. My mom is chaperoning, and she wants me to 'put myself out there'." Marcel uses finger quotes around his mother's words, rolling his eyes.

"That's unnecessary. You're about as out there as someone can be. You're the only person at our school who's.... well, who's like _you_ , ya know?"

"A giant nerd."

"Nah, there are tons of nerds," Veronica replies, sitting back beside Marcel. He's going through some permission slips. "You're just you all the time. Like, even when it gets you kicked in the face, you just keep on the same way you always have. You haven't changed at all the whole time I've known you. It's kind of impressive."

Veronica is surprised with herself. She didn't mean to say all that. She didn't even know she was thinking it in the first place. But it's out in the open now, and she's a little worried because Marcel hasn't spoken for 5 minutes now. The only sound in the office is the shuffling of papers in his hand and the metallic clicking of Veronica's ankle bracelet charms as her knee bounces nervously under the desk.

"Why should I?" Marcel's adenoidal voice pierces the silence, startling Veronica out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" she asks in confusion.

"Why should I change? They're still going to treat me the same." Veronica chews her lip but stays silent as Marcel continues. "Harry has this whole school wrapped around her pretty little finger. As long as she hates me, everyone will. You can take away the glasses and the ties, and I'll still be Harry's brother. I just wouldn't be myself."

That makes sense, but there's still a question that's been swirling around in Veronica's mind for ages. She's always wanted to ask Harry, but she knows she would never get a real answer from her anyway. Harry would just say that Marcel is a nerd and that that should be enough reason to hate him. But Veronica feels like she can ask Marcel. "Why does she hate you?"

Marcel sighs and smooths his hand over his hair. "Oh, I dunno— maybe because she's delusional and thinks everything is a competition between us."

"She doesn't hate Ed?" Shouldn't Ed be more competition to her? He's handsome and charming, and everyone likes him. It makes more sense that Harry would hate Ed because he's actually a threat to her social dominance.

Marcel huffs a sarcastic ' _ha!_ '. "Ed is 20 and he still lives with his mom and hangs out with teenagers."

Veronica narrows her eyes at Marcel. "So? My brother is 20 and still lives with us."

"But he's in college, right?" Veronica nods, realising what Marcel is getting at. It's a little shocking the critical way that he speaks about his brother. Yeah, Marcel isn't exactly the sweetest person Veronica has ever met, but he's turning out to be a lot more judgemental than she thought he was. Maybe it just seems that he doesn't have opinions because he doesn't share his opinions with anyone.

Or maybe because he doesn't have anyone to share his opinions with.

That sinking feeling of guilt creeps into Veronica's conscience again, turning her stomach. She wonders what Marcel must think of her, and, in the typical nervous Veronica fashion, she blurts out the question.

Marcel raises an eyebrow at her red face, while Veronica wishes for the sweet release of death.

"I think you have _potential_..." he answers sincerely, but Veronica can tell there's something more and that it's not good by the way his voice lilts on 'potential'.

"But?"

"But you're..." He seems to struggle to find words, which is odd due to his vast vocabulary. "...you're so _focused_ on portraying yourself a certain way that you miss a lot of opportunities to legitimise yourself as something other than— pardon my language— a vapid, self-absorbed bitch."

Ooh, that definitely stings. Coming from any of her friends, those words would have rolled right off her back, but for some reason she actually cares about Marcel's opinion. A lot. It's different now that she's gotten to know him the little that she has.

Veronica doesn't say anything back, just lets him get back to work as she wonders on about what is it about their 4-day old relationship that makes her care so much. It's not like they're even friends... except what if they are?

"Are we friends?" she asks suddenly, this time meaning to.

His eyebrows furrow in consideration before he looks up at her, green eyes studying her face. Finally, he just shrugs and starts shuffling the papers again. "I don't know."

Veronica leans over and props her head up in her hand, levelling herself with Marcel's hunched figure so that she can see his face when she softly replies, "I'd like it if we were."

"Why?" he bites harshly. His head snaps over to glare at Veronica with so much hate that it actually makes her flinch away from him, her shoulders hitting the back of her chair.

"Idon'tknownevermind!" she squeaks in panic. Her eyes dart to her lap to escape the animosity of his gaze. She can feel her lip starting to tremble as her neck grows hotter and hotter with shame, so she bites down on it to keep it still. She wasn't exactly expecting that reaction from him, but she deserves it she guesses. He has all the reasons in the world to hate her, and she gave him every one of them.

"Veronica, look-" Marcel starts to sigh apologetically, but Veronica cuts him off.

"Don't apologise." Her voice is barely there, pathetic and feeble the way it always gets when she's trying not to cry. Her efforts prove to be futile, however, when she bursts into tears not even a second later.

"Oh my god! I'm so-"

"DON'T FUCKING APOLOGISE!" she screeches back at Marcel hysterically. "YOU'RE SO NICE! YOU'RE SO NICE, AND I'M SUCH A BITCH!"

"What on Earth is going on out here?!" The principal shouts, stepping out of his office to see what the commotion is.

"I'M A FUCKING BITCH!" Veronica scream-cries at the man. It's too late now. Her emotional dam has been broken, and the repressed guilt from the past 3 years is bursting out all at once.

"Veronica!" the man yells over her violent and uncontrollable wailing. "Veronica! You need to calm down!"

But she can't calm down, and that's the last thing she remembers thinking before she wakes up on cot in the nurse's office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god. Veronica is so dramatic. I literally can't with her when i'm writing her character sometimes.
> 
> That cry scene was supposed to be funny but I think she just came off as manic and frightening. Oh well
> 
> Anyway, thanks so much for the support with this. :)


	5. Chapter 5

Her head is pounding and her limbs feel like they're made of lead and her mouth tastes like just pure ass. "Ugh," she groans, rolling onto her side. The room is empty except for her, which is unfortunate because she was really hoping there'd be someone there to explain what the hell is going on.

The door to the private bathroom clicks open, and Marcel walks out, wiping his hands with a paper towel.

She's never been so glad to see his ugly glasses. That is, until she remembers wailing like a banshee in front of him.

"Oh, you're awake."

"Yeah," she croaks, wondering when she had chain smoked that whole pack of cigarettes to make her voice sound so wrecked. "What happened?"

Marcel is trying not to smirk. She can tell because he has that same stupid dimple as Harry.

Veronica narrows her eyes at him. "What?"

The grin breaks out fully on his face. "You hyperventilated and passed out."

"What the fuck is funny about that? Why are you smiling like that?"

Finally, he just bursts out laughing. "Because you threw up on Principal O'Malley."

Veronica gasps, covering her mouth. "I didn't!"

"You did."

" _Oh fuck meee_ ," Veronica whines, covering the rest of her face as well.

"Oh! Also, here's a new shirt. I didn't want to overstep any boundaries, so I just kind wiped your shirt off."

Horror flashes through Veronica as she sits up. "Ew! Ew! Ew!" she screams, throwing off her soiled shirt as quick as humanly possible.

"Hand me that shirt, will you?" Veronica asks, disguising her command as something a little politer. She's busy inspecting her boobs and bra for any sick, both of which turn out clean. "I said, hand me that shirt," she demands impatiently, looking up at Marcel. It's her turn to smirk when she realises what's holding him up.

Veronica is well aware of her heavenly chest, after all she does have the best tits to waist ratio in the whole school. She doesn't have the fattest ass like Louis, or the longest legs like Harry and Nicole, or the best complexion like Eleanor. She doesn't even have the biggest boobs technically. Liam has the biggest boobs. She is just blessed with a small waist and huge ass titties for her size.

"Have you ever actually seen boobs before?" Veronica smirks, startling Marcel's eyes back up to hers.

He looks embarrassed, but he answers defiantly. "Yes."

"Like in real life?"

"Yes."

"Not your mom's."

"Yes."

"Not Harry's."

"Yes."

Veronica doesn't believe that for a second. "Really?"

"No," he mutters back, defeated.

"Do you want to feel them?"

Marcel's face burns the brightest of reds before he turns around to leave.

"No please! Don't go! Look I'm putting the shirt on."

Marcel sighs exasperatedly but turns back around anyway and goes to sit on the chair beside her tiny bed.

Veronica smiles disarmingly at him, then buries her nose in a clump of the oversized white t-shirt she had put on. "This smells so good," she moans, her eyes crossing. "Where did it come from?"

"Uhhhh... my locker?"

Her hands immediately let go of the fabric as she remembers that they're not exactly on the best terms with each other (as if they were even sort of friends in the first place). "Oh." An awkwardness overtakes the air that can entirely be attributed to the uncertainty of their relationship's status.

"Sorry for being a douche earlier," Marcel rushes out to both of their relief.

"Sorry for being a douche _all_ the time."

"You're not a douche all the time."

"How sweet," Veronica smiles, playfully sarcastic. Maybe she should just leave the friends thing alone for a while. They're fine in the enemy-acquaintance limbo... for now.

[][][][]

Veronica sits at the lunch table, picking the chicken and croutons from her salad and trying to avoid the spinach and kale leaves. Her little breakdown from the day before had left her feeling too sick to eat dinner the last night, and this rabbit ass food isn't doing anything to satiate her growing hunger today.

"It's not 'rabbit ass food'," Harry parrots back at her, shovelling a forkful of 80% water/20% torture into her mouth.

"Yeah, rabbits eat carrots," Eleanor interjects dumbly.

 _Fuck me_ , Veronica groans in her head. Still, nobody pays Eleanor any attention as Veronica replies. "I don't know why I couldn't just eat a chicken sandwich. That's healthy enough."

"You know the rules," Harry hisses back, trying and failing to keep the effortlessly perfect vibe of their table rolling. "If you eat a chicken sandwich then we're all going to want one, and some of us don't have the carbs to spare." She shoots a look at Liam who blushes and looks down at her salad.

Liam's stature is a little more broad than the other girls. She's 100% athlete in a buffer sense of the word. The girls like to pick at her for being fat when it's all muscle. Even Veronica has to admit that Liam is beginning to look a little too masculine, but Liam should be praised for her accomplishments that have made look like this in the first place.

"What happened with you yesterday anyway? Cody said that you were in the infirmary?"

"I passed out in the middle of detention. Probably from the lack of food," Veronica lies smoothly, bringing a scowl to Harry's mouth and a smirk to Nicole's. "What are you smirking at, Hamburglar?"

Nicole's smirk disappears instantly. Both of her eyes were black and connected over the nose by a black band of bruised skin.

The girls all laughed at Veronica's comment.

"You know what? Fuck you, Veronica!" Nicole sneers, shooting up from her seat.

"Fuck you, Nicole!" Veronica shouts back, also rising to square up with Nicole despite the girl's almost six-foot stature.

"Why don't you both go fuck you?!" Louise yells at both of them, dragging a shaken up Eleanor away from the table. Eleanor is quite easily frightened, and having two girls about to throw claws at each other over her head isn't exactly the best position for her to be in. Also one of Nicole's sloth arms slapped Eleanor on her way up, and it looked pretty painful.

Louise's stupid valley girl accent breaks Veronica and Nicole out of their stare down, both girls bursting out laughing while collapsing back into their chairs. Louise is such a ditz sometimes and she doesn't even realise it. She's like a bitch straight out of Clueless but actually evil. There's literally a rumour that she's possessed by a demon.

"What's so funny, ladies?"

Veronica doesn't even have the time to groan before two hairy blonde arms are coming down on the table in front of her, a slender chest pressed against her back. Veronica wasn't entirely honest about the 'no guys like her' thing. There's still one. A very annoying, very Irish one.

"Get off of me, Niall."

The other girls all swoon at the dashing blonde jokester. He's the class clown and a bit of a nuisance, but his boyish charm keeps him on good terms with everyone... well, almost everyone.

"Hi, Niall," Harry giggles, pretending not to be Satan's right hand minion. Her curly ponytail is flipped over her shoulder to no avail as Niall stares down at the raven-haired girl who glares back up at him.

"You look lovely today. That shirt really brings out the burning hatred in your eyes."

"Fuck off."

Niall just throws his head back and laughs like Veronica's said the funniest thing, his clear braces catching the light for a second.

Niall is sweet, he really is, but Veronica just can't trick herself into being attracted to him. It's her luck that a cute guy who is funny AND nice would come along, and she wouldn't feel a single thing for him. Then again, it's not like he could handle her anyway. He'd get his expectations shattered by Veronica's bitchiness eventually, once he realised that it's not an act— she _really_ is _that_ bad.

But still, like always, Niall stays around and chitchats with the table until lunch ends and they all disperse.

[][][][]

"Do you have the answer to number five?"

...

"Spsst! Veronica. Veronica. Ver-"

"What?" Veronica snaps, glaring at the girl in the desk next to her.

"Do you have the answer to-"

"No! I don't!"

"Oh okay," Eleanor nods dumbly, going back to staring mindlessly at her paper.

Meanwhile, Veronica is about ready to kill. For the last 15 minutes, Eleanor has been whispering Veronica's name and asking for answers, which Veronica _does_ have but is now too annoyed to want to share with her.

"Veronica."

"WHAT!" she bites automatically, her eyes widening as she realises that it is not Eleanor calling for her attention this time but the teacher, Ms. Smith.

Luckily, Ms. Smith is a kind and forgiving woman despite what the volume of homework she assigns might suggest. "You're needed in the counsellor's office."

Veronica nods and begins to pack her things into her baby pink leather backpack. She's no stranger to the school counsellor. A few particularly nasty rumours have put her in that office before, not to mention a couple of butthurt students who said she made them feel threatened. First of all, it is completely absurd that people would believe Veronica has more than one boyfriend because she's Muslim. That's not even how it works. And secondly, nobody says that they're going to 'tear out your spine and snake it up your vagina' and actually _means_ it. There was no reason for that sensitive ass bitch to report Veronica to the principal.

Anyway, this is probably just about nailing Nicole in the face with a volleyball, which is an understood risk of the sport. Everyone on the team has been hit in the face at least once.

What Veronica is not expecting is to walk into the counsellor's office and see Principal Dickwad standing by the desk and Marcel fidgeting on the sofa. All eyes shoot to her as the door clicks shut.

"What's going on here?"

The solemn look on the twenty-something woman's face doesn't lighten at Veronica's jokingly suspicious tone. "Why don't you take a seat?"

"Alright, don't make it weird or anything," Veronica scoffs, sitting on the opposite end of the couch from Marcel. Once she is all situated, she looks up at the woman expectantly.

"Recently, it has come to our attention..."

_Oh, here we go again._

"... that you may be in need of some emotional counselling–"

 

" _Excuse me_?" Veronica couldn't have heard that correctly.

"– due to an episode wherein you were unable to control your emotional responses in a way that could be endangering to yourself and those around you."

Marcel puts up his hands in surrender when Veronica shoots him a lethal glare.

"Ms. Malik, please do not intimidate the other students."

"Why is he even here? Isn't this like sensitive information?"

"You can ask him to leave if you'd like."

"No," Veronica seethes. "If he did do something, then I want him to know exactly why I'll hook him up to my car and jump start his balls." Veronica laughs as Marcel's Adam's apple bobs in fear.

"That's enough!" the principal shouts, giving Veronica his most authoritative look.

Instead of cowering, Veronica uncrosses her legs and glares directly into the man's eyes. "Literally, I have things to do so can we wrap this up? I'm done with all of you."

The counsellor gives a resigned sigh and looks questioningly to her superior.

"Get out of my sight."

"With pleasure," she sasses back, shooting a wink at Marcel before she grabs her stuff and struts out of the room. She's still lowkey pissed at him, mostly because of her suspicion although she's pretty sure he wouldn't try to stage some bullshit intervention over a simple meltdown like that. It could have been much worse. If he thinks her crying fits are bad, then he definitely hasn't seen her bitchfits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update. I jumped like months ahead in the story and started writing that, and I didn't realise that I had run out of pre-written chapters. So yeah. I'm still writing. I'm just.... me.
> 
> Also sorry if it seems choppy. I write like I'm watching a movie of what I'm writing and I just come up with scenes I like.
> 
> Also also I MIGHT change the rating on this to explicit. Idk. I wrote some sexy times. Gonna write more sexy times probably. Not sure if I'll include them though.
> 
> Thanks so much for the kudos and comments!


	6. Chapter 6

"So what were you in the shrink's office for? Yeah, I heard about that too."

Veronica is currently on her stomach in Harry's bed reading the sex tips portion of her _Cosmo_. She's getting really tired of Harry's eyes and ears around the school spilling her shit. "Eh. Something about me being out of control. Endangering other students blah blah."

It's just her and Harry right now, the other girls too busy getting fucked or spending quality time with their families. She still wouldn't risk telling Harry the whole truth though. It would only involve her having to explain what went down between her and Marcel, and she's not ready to stress their teetering relationship so soon.

"That's stupid. You're like second to El to being the least threatening person I know."

Veronica furrows her eyebrows, flipping the page. "Not true. Also have you tried the grapefruit method?"

Harry bursts out laughing, and it's like a beautiful tinkling bell. Veronica is jealous of the way Harry sounds so angelic and sexy when she laughs. It's honestly not fair. "No! But one of us should definitely test that out sometime."

"I guess it's up to you then since no guy wants anything to do with me."

"That's not true," Harry sing songs annoyingly.

"Don't say it."

"Niall would be more than happy to let you grapefruit his dick."

The black-haired girl groans into the pages of the magazine. "I actually hate you so much."

Harry then snatches the magazine and proceeds to read one of the tips, replacing key words as she sees fit. "You could tickle Niall's feet with your nipples: climb on top of Niall in reverse cowgirl position, then bend over until your nipples reach the tops of his feet. …Yowzah!"

"Oh my god! Go fuck yourself!"

Harry dissolves into giggles, yelping when Veronica lands her ass right on the other girl's thighs. Feeling risky, Veronica pulls her tank top down under her boobs and starts rubbing her nipples on Harry's feet. Harry actually starts screaming through her laughter, prompting her older brother to slam open the door in full protector mode.

"Oh holy shit."

Veronica shrieks in response to his pervy ass smile and pulls her tank top back up.

"Well well well. What do we have here?" Edward smirks, sending disgusted chills down Veronica's spine.

"Get out!" Harry yells. She starts throwing pillows from her vast collection, cursing at Edward until he closes the door behind him. "I'm so sorry about that, V. I swear I had no idea he would do that."

Veronica climbs off of her friend and shrugs. "It wasn't that big a deal. Your brother's just creepy. Real creepy."

"No kidding. I'm pretty sure I caught him jerkin it to Louise's vacation pics. Although, that black halter bikini was made for her."

"Yeah, but like also ew," Veronica giggles. Speaking of brothers, the urge to dash upstairs for just a moment strikes her again. The feeling of just wanting to know what Marcel is up to has been coming and going in waves since the moment she stepped through the front door.

"Did you hear about Percy?"

Veronica's blood runs cold at just the mention of his name, replacing her warm and fuzzy need-related thoughts. "No," she replies, emotionless, kind of not even wanting to hear what Harry has to say unless it involves Percy being fucked in the ass by an elephant.

Wait.

Veronica mentally shudders as Harry continues. "Well, Caitlyn told Karen to tell me that Jesy told Ellen to tell you that Percy slept with Monica who just got a fucking STI."

Veronica gasps. "What a fucking manslut. How disgusting."

"I know. Also I keep forgetting to ask, but these annoying little sophomore bitches won't stop pestering me about your brother. Does he give out the dick or not?"

"Not to minors!" Veronica chokes, sadly familiar with the subject of people, male and female, wanting to bang her brother.

"Ugh, you're so lucky. Ed only fishes in the high school's pond if you know what I mean."

"That's disgusting. Like not even because he's 20. Mostly because it's him." Veronica shudders causing Harry to laugh again.

"You're telling me. I live with it. Anyway, Percy ain't shit so I would just forget him. Get you some Niall before I steal him."

"Eh." She's not exactly in the mood to date anyway.

"You know what you need?" Veronica raises her eyebrows. "A MAKEOVER! It's time to reinvent yourself. Who do you want to be?"

Veronica almost objects but hesitates. Maybe, she needs this. She just needs to let go of her old self and achieve an entirely new level of existence. It's time for her to ascend in the ranks of bitch. She was always destined for more.

"I... I want to be a bad bitch."

[][][][]

"This isn't even fair. I'm the bad bitch of the group," Louise whines, stomping her tiny little foot as if that's going to affect her callous friends.

"Nah, you're the evil bitch. I'm the head bitch in charge. Nicole is the stuck up bitch. Liam is the nice bitch. Eleanor is the dumb bitch. And now Veronica is the bad bitch. It all works out."

"How evil am I?" Louise smirks, basking in Harry's attention. She's always been desperate for the taller girl's approval, but that's not unlike the rest of the world.

Harry smiles down at her littlest minion. "You're the worst person I know. I wear a crucifix because you actually terrify me sometimes."

Louise practically preens at the should-be-insulting comment. This almost makes up for the fact that Harry has dragged her to the mall to shop for _Veronica_. Disgusting.

Veronica steps out of the dressing room again, in yet another skin tight romper that pushes up her already gigantic boobs to the max. "I think I like this one..." She turns around to show the other girls the back. "...but I feel like it's showing too much leg maybe?"

"Try too much areola!" Louise yells back, unnecessarily. The whole store didn't need to hear that.

"My nipples are very high; I can't help it!" Veronica whines back, looking down to find that her nipples are in fact not exposed. "Don't be a douche, Louise."

"I like everything you've tried on except for that green and yellow monstrosity. Honestly, you're going to make so many guys spackle their shorts."

Both Louise and Veronica cringe at Harry's wording, although it's true. Veronica will be taking her baby pink, 90s brat image and upgrading to something sleek and modern and sophisticated but still slutty enough to pull. She's going to attract so many college guys closer to her age now instead of creepy rich dads looking for a submissive sugarbaby. She already has a rich daddy. She doesn't need another.

"Okay I only have one more. Then we can do whatever." Veronica slips back into the room. She saved the scariest for last. It's black and tight and sheer. There's a black leotard underneath it, but the rest of the dress is completely see through. Veronica fixes her hair then opens door.

"YOUR WHOLE ASS IS HANGING OUT!"

Thanks, Lou. Really appreciate that.

Harry gives Louise a look and points at the bench outside the store, the smaller girl hanging her head and going to sit.

"But does it look okay?"

"I'm lowkey gay for you in that dress. You can't wear it to school though. But if you did, Niall would bust a nut in the caf."

Veronica cheers and claps, flouncing back into the dressing room.

By the end of the day, she's spent over $600 on a new wardrobe. She isn't getting rid of her old clothes but they're definitely being relocated to the back of her closet to make room for the beauty she has purchased today.

"Hi, mom," she greets happily, driving home from the mall.

"Hey, sweetie. I just wanted to let you know that Zayn is going out with Ed tonight, and your father and I are meeting for dinner, so you'll be on your own for dinner tonight."

"Okay," Veronica pouts. She really can't cook for shit. So her only option is to eat out. Oh well, if anyone asks, she has no other option but to put on one of her new sexy outfits and treat herself to dinner.

"I love you, baby girl."

"Love you too," Veronica smiles, the car speaker clicking off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. My ADHD brain was suddenly like "write every other fic but this one." I honestly can't with myself sometimes. So basically I've been writing on this, but really slowly bc my brain is revolting against me.
> 
> Also I got distracted bc I made all these characters in Sims 4 and I've been playing with them. Marcel won't stop making hot dogs.
> 
> Here's the dress


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
> This is her outfit.

Veronica feels so fuckin sexy. Like she always feels sexy to a degree, but this is kill a man with one look sexy. Her hair is straightened. Her eyeliner is razor sharp. She's wearing a black and white bandeaux top and a matching skin tight pencil skirt. She's got her six-inch heels with the crystals on, and her favorite black lipstick. She's fucking jail bait tonight.

 

She got last minute reservations at this Italian restaurant on the far side of town that her family hasn't bothered to go to yet. Everyone says it's really good, but it's just so out of the way of everything.

 

It looks pretty upscale... well, upscale for her little suburban town. The sidewalk is clean and the architecture is very modern. The inner theme is grey, black, and a deep red with tonnes of amber lights hanging from the ceiling. This is definitely her idea of a treat yoself kind of date.

 

"Hello, I have a reservation for Malik," the girl says to the hostess. This place isn't quite swanky enough for a maitre d or a valet, but it's not like her dad is about shelling out unnecessary amounts of money for fancy food any way. This will do just fine.

 

The woman nods and directs her to her table. "Your waiter will be with you shortly."

 

Veronica just smiles and takes the huge menu, immediately ducking her face in to read her options. She's lowkey so pumped to eat some real food. She's actually sick of eating salad at school (because that's what Harry allows) and boxed macaroni at home (because that's what she can cook).

 

"Hello, my name is Marcel, and I'll be serving you tonight."

 

Veronica slaps the menu down on the table with a shit-eating grin. "No fucking way."

 

She just barely catches it— the flash of emotion in his eyes clearly begging God to put him out of this misery. It only fuels her creepy desire to infiltrate his life.

 

"The specials this evening include the onion soup, the pasta primavera, and the squash ravioli. What would you like to drink with your meal?"

 

"Your cum," she answers automatically, revelling in the red tinge to his cheeks.

 

"Please, Veronica. Don't do this here. My aunt will kill me."

 

"I was only kidding, sheesh. Can I get a cherry vanilla Italian cream soda and also your throbbing-"

 

"Marcel! What do we have here?" a woman cheers, seeming to fabricate out of nowhere. "Is this a friend from school?"

 

"No," he answers at the same time as Veronica says "yes."

 

The woman looks weirdly between them, before giving an awkward smile. "Well, anywho. Enjoy your meal. Don't spend too much time pampering this one, eh. You've still got other tables," the woman winks and nudges at Marcel.

 

Once she's gone, Marcel just sighs and goes to fetch her drink. She knows she shouldn't fuck with him at his place of work, but it's just so irresistible. She'll keep her dick-talk on the down low just in case.

 

"Here's your drink," he says, putting a frothy pink and white drink on the table. "Are you ready to order?"

 

"Mmm, I think I want the garlic angel  hair with the grilled shrimp. Also can I get a side of fire roasted potatoes and the broiled Maine lobster tail a la carte?" It's a lot. She knows it is. But she could honestly eat a small human being at this point.

 

"What salad would you like?"

 

"Can I just get mozzarella sticks instead of a salad? I never want to see another salad until the day I die."

 

"Harry will do that to you," Marcel comments casually, like he's not shit-talking his sister while taking one of her friends' order. "Your food will be out shortly." With that, he scuttles away to the back again.

 

While he's gone, Veronica goes ahead to the bathroom to check her lipstick and fluff her cleavage. Normal bathroom stuff. Also she wanted to stick her debit card in her top so she could make a show of pulling it out later.

 

It happens in slow motion when she rounds the corner back into the main area. His mouth drops open a little as his eyes properly take in the way her outfit hugs her body for the first time that night, and he runs straight into the wall just left of the kitchen's double doors. Veronica can practically hear the snap from where she stands, the side of his signature horne-rimmed glasses hitting the wall and snapping in two.

 

She quickly runs over to him.

 

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" She bends down and picks up the two equal halves of what was once his glasses.

 

"My mom's going to kill me," he utters, staring hopelessly at his broken glasses in her hands. "Aunt Kate is going to kill me. I can't leave her during dinner rush."

 

"Then don't?"

 

"Well," he snips, understandably stressed out, "I'm kind of blind if you couldn't tell by the gigantic bifocals. I can't see hardly anything at the moment."

 

It's then that the woman from before runs over in her tiny heels, giving Marcel such a fond look that Veronica must assume this is Aunt Kate. "What happened here?" she asks with a knowing smirk.

 

"I broke my glasses," Marcel answers, head hung in shame. It's then that Veronica finally picks up on the fact that Marcel has kind of a guilt complex. That, or he's just really adamant about taking responsibility.

 

"It's okay, Hun. You can take the rest of the night off. I know you're blind as a bat. I don't have time to drive you home at the moment, though. Maybe you can sit at a table and wait." The woman shoots Veronica a little wink, causing her to pinken.

 

"You can sit with me," Veronica confirms. "That way I don't look like a loser alone at a table for two."

 

Marcel looks ready to die but follows the girl back to her table. "Don't try anything. She's watching you like a hawk," Marcel warns, sitting on the chair opposite Veronica.

 

"That's a shame. I was really hoping to have sex right here on top of the table." Veronica rolls her eyes and bites into one of the crunchy, gooey mozzarella sticks that had appeared on the table in her absence. "Oh fuck," she moans, eyes crossing in bliss. "Why would I ever fuck you when I could fuck these mozza sticks?"

 

"Thanks," Marcel replies blankly, probably less worried about his aunt hearing them now than before despite his threat. As long as she doesn't try rubbing his crotch under the table or something, they should be fine.

 

"Who made these? I need to marry them right now."

 

"Lucifer."

 

Veronica chokes on a laugh, eyes widening when she realises he's not joking.

 

"The chef's name is Lucifer."

 

"I didn't know Louise had a job."

 

It's Marcel's turn to crack at smile at that. He's had more than his fair share of terrifying run-ins with the 4'11 girl. She's so tiny yet so packed with hatred and evil. That's why her butt's so big. It's full of hellfire and damnation.

 

"So like..." Veronica trails off. "I didn't know you guys' aunt owned this place." Aka why didn't Harry ever tell me??

 

"Oh yeah. I've been working here on weekends since I was 12. Harry usually doesn't like to bring anybody here because, as you might could infer, Aunt Kate has a knack for embarrassing people."

 

"So does Harry." Veronica would think the two would get along just fine.

 

"Yeah, no. Harry embarrasses people to destroy their self esteem. Aunt Kate is just a sweet, oblivious woman."

 

Veronica hums in understanding around another bite of heaven. "Eat one." She pushes the plate at Marcel, who shrugs and takes one. He's human. He knows good food when he sees it.

 

He bites into it, a visible chill going down his spine. He hadn't realised how hungry he was until he took a bite of the pure deliciousness. "What the heck?" he says to no one, marveling in the perfect flavor and crunch.

 

"Are you cold?"

 

"What? No. Why do you ask?"

 

"Your nipples look like they're about to tear holes in your shirt."

 

"Hey, could you do me a favor right now and go wait for me in the middle of the road? Yeah, just stand right on the yellow line if you don't mind."

 

"Sarcasm really suits you. Brings out the dick in your personality."

 

"Wasn't sarcasm, sweet pea."

 

"You really don't want to mess with me, _hunnie pot_."

 

Marcel smiles dryly. "Oh, and what are you going to do? Sic Harry on me?"

 

"No," Veronica smirks, "I'll handle you myself." Veronica cackles evilly as Marcel jolts, knees hitting the underside of the table. 

 

He whips around in his seat, checking to see if anyone saw what just happened under the table. Thank god for the long white table cloths he'd once called unnecessary and tacky. He turns back to Veronica with a terrified look on his face. "Keep your feet away from there."

 

"You say this now, but wait until my mouth is down there. You'll be beg-"

 

"Spare me," Marcel replies, sticking his hand up as an indication for her to stop.

 

Veronica shrugs, happily accepting her dinner from a waiter who has just appeared behind Marcel.

 

When she's all finished, having split her food with Marcel because it turned out to be way too much for her, she taps her nails against the table anxiously, debating on whether she should ask the question on her mind and why she even wants to. Like always, she blurts it out. She's coined her inability to control herself around the geeky boy as The Marcel Effect™.

 

"Do you want to come with me? Like so you don't have to sit here all night."

 

Marcel seems to actually consider it for a second but ultimately shakes his head. "I don't think you'd want to risk Harry seeing you drop me off."

 

Veronica rubs her arms, feeling shy all of the sudden as she looks up at him from beneath her fake eyelashes. "We could go to my house."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, I'm slow. I wrote like a whole other oneshot and half of another oneshot and jesus. Anyway, sorry about the short chapters. :)))))))))))


	8. Chapter 8

[Harry's character model for reference](https://67.media.tumblr.com/8854780bf66ebfb7908c648bb42da8fa/tumblr_o9mkcrvDpS1rsg1uno1_540.jpg)

 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 

 

"Oh my fucking god. You're fucking kidding me." Veronica slams her hands down on the steering wheel. After six failed attempts to start her car, she's about ready to kill a man.

 

Marcel sits awkwardly in the passenger seat of her over the top black SUV. The car is by no means old, but it was bought used. Of course, no parent in their right mind would but their sixteen year old daughter a brand new Mercedes so they got her a used one. Got to start em off small, right? Anyway, it probably would have been smart to check the battery, but it was running when they bought it.

 

"I can just-"

 

"You stay right there," Veronica growls, understandably irritated. "I'm going to call my brother." Veronica whips out her phone and taps the screen impatiently until she finally sees the words "Oshawott calling mobile..." pop up. It rings six times before he answers. She counts.

 

"V? Hello?"

 

"Zayn!" Veronica nearly yells into the phone. "Where are you?"

 

"'M at Ed's. Why?"

 

"Um, I'm kind of at Sorelle, but my car won't start..." she replies sheepishly. It should be noted that she didn't include the part about the boy sitting in her car that she's planning on taking home with her, which is probably in his best interest.

 

"Okay, give us a few. We'll be there soon."

 

"What? No! Don't bring-"

 

The lines goes dead before she can advise her brother not to bring the brother of the boy beside her. Ed will only cause more trouble.

 

"So... we have a while until he gets here.... want some gum?" Veronica asks, giving him a little wink. When he politely declines, Veronica shrugs and takes a red stick for herself.

 

It's a good thirty minutes of the two playing on their respective phones until a tiny red Prius pulls up. It's honestly the dumbest fucking car Veronica has ever seen, but Zayn insists that it's about the environment and the gas mileage and blahblah hippie ass bitch blah. One would think that he'd keep it cleaner what with the stick up his ass, but she can already feel her heels sliding into the piles of fast food bags and she's not even completely out of her car yet.

 

Veronica makes sure to give Zayn her most murderous 'don't test me' glare as she walks around the car, confusion evident on her brother's face until he sees the lanky figure come around her SUV. A huge, open-mouthed grin breaks out across Zayn's face, as he mentally queues up  _Embarrassing Veronica: The Greatest Hits_.

 

Marcel and Veronica slide into the cluttered backseat of Zayn's tiny little hybrid car. One of the seats is full of art supplies so Veronica has to sit on the middle seat, arm brushing against Marcel's.

 

"Oh really?" Edward smirks, turning around in his seat to give Marcel a congratulatory look. He completely bypasses Veronica, just wiggling his eyebrows at his little brother before turning around in his seat. "Did you know about this?" he asks Zayn.

 

"No," Zayn smiles back, like a fucking  _imp_. He may seem docile and indie, but he's still a twenty year old annoying fuck. He winks at Veronica through the mirror, shoulders shaking with silent laughter as he gets back into the position to drive. As soon as Zayn turns the key in the ignition the radio starts blasting the sound of a woman moaning.

 

Veronica's eyes widen in horror as her head immediately snaps to check Marcel's reaction. His eyes are the size of the moon. Yup, that's an appropriate reaction.

 

" _Fucked my coochie_!"

 

"Zayn! Turn that off!" Veronica screams over the music.

 

Edward just turns around in his seat again and laughs at the two teens' mortified expressions. "Nah, I think Marcel likes it. Let's leave it on."

 

With that, Zayn pulls away from the restaurant.

 

" _Little young thing, go around my dick with your tongue ring. Deep throat my nine inch..._ "

 

Marcel finally brings his eyes over to meet Veronica's, but somehow it feels inappropriate to maintain eye contact while this guy is apparently 'hitting her where she doodie at.'

 

Veronica makes pleading eye contact with Zayn in the rearview mirror, and out of the grace in his heart he reaches forward and hits the skip button. The next song is still definitely hip hop, but it can't possibly be as terrible as the last one.

 

" _Come, girl. I'm tryna get ya pussy wet..._ "

 

And Veronica officially wishes she were dead. By the look on Marcel's face, he does too. At least the two assholes in the front are getting a kick out of this.

 

" _Work. That. Clit. Come. Girl._ "

 

[][][][]

 

As soon as Veronica and Marcel have entered the safety of her bedroom, escaping the catcalls and whistles as the door slams, Veronica turns to Marcel and begins apologising profusely.

 

"Seriously, I didn't even know it was gonna be like that. I'm so so sorry."

 

"It's uh... it's fine." Marcel offers her an awkward smile while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Maybe it's the "mood-setting" music or Veronica's impending mental breakdown, but she can't help admiring the way the muscles in his arm flex slightly with the motion. Even under his black button up, the slight muscles are still visible.

 

"You look good when you do that," she comments as she brushes past him to dump her purse by her bed, as if it's a completely casual thing to put out there. Fortunately, Marcel doesn't have time to think up an acceptable reply as Veronica reaches into her top and peels off a sticker-like object.

 

"What are you doing?" Marcel squeaks, scandalised. He can't see anything, but it's the principle of the thing.

 

"Peeling off these stupid nipple covers."

 

"Nipple covers?"

 

Veronica tosses them on her nightstand and shrugs. She begins unpacking her backpack, pulling out several heavy books she procured for a project she has due the next week. Maybe Marcel can help her out a bit. "Yeah, they're like these sticker patches you put on your tits so you don't have to wear a bra but also so you don't nip out in public. Also they come in handy if you have dark nipples and you're wearing light shirts because I cannot tell you how many times I've had people tell me they could see my nipples through my clothes. Jesus, it's actually the worst."

 

By the time Veronica looks up, Marcel has pulled the bottom of his black sweater vest (because he even wears one with his fucking work uniform) over his head to hide the shame on his face. "I'm literally about to cry. Please stop talking about nipples."

 

Veronica accidentally barks out a horrific snort/shout of a laugh at Marcel's uncharacteristically silly and dramatic antics.

 

Marcel slowly peels the fabric off of his face to reveal a shit eating grin. "Did that noise really just come out of your face?"

 

Veronica stomps her foot with a huff. "Don't make fun of me."

 

"I'm not. It's just funny."

 

"Why," she replies snippily.

 

"It's just that you're the most attractive person I know, and then  _that_  is what your laugh sounds like."

 

Veronica's demeanour instantly switches, the tip of her tongue licking across her lip as a dirty smirk spreads across her face. She begins slowly sauntering across the floor with slow, deliberate steps. Her shoulders dip side to side predatorily, body curving with every step, like a tiger stalking through high grass. Yeah, she's putting on a show, but she knows he'll love it. Any guy would be lucky to even be in her general area. "What was that?"

 

"Uhhhh....."

 

"You said I'm the most attractive person you know."

 

"Of course," Marcel stutters out, trying and failing to retain his confidence. "Objectively, you would be considered good looking."

 

"Oh, but you didn't say that," Veronica fake pouts before a dangerous smile breaks it. "You didn't say I was objectively attractive." By now, Veronica would be in Marcel's personal space if he hadn't begun fearfully stepping back with her every advance. "You didn't say I was beautiful." Another step. "Gorgeous." Step. "Sexy."

 

Marcel's entire body tenses as his back hits the door. He has nowhere to run, and no time as Veronica is right there, not touching him, but close enough that her cinnamon scented breath hits his face as she looks up at his. 

 

"You said that I'm attractive." Her eyes flit down then back up, a switch seeming to have flicked on inside of her, her eyes now wide and catlike, glassy orbs of amber piercing into his own. It's as if there's a different person in her body now, someone passionate and sincere and  _deadly_. "Are you attracted to me?"

 

Marcel can't even find his words, the only thing escaping his lips a shaky breath of ' _oh my god_ '.

 

"I'm about to make you cum so hard you  _see_  God."

 

"Excuse me?!" Zayn suddenly shouts from the other side of the door, ripping it open so suddenly that a very dazed Marcel falls backward onto his ass in the hallway.

 

"Were you eavesdropping?!" Veronica shrieks, wanting just to absolutely murder Zayn and Ed but also wanting to spontaneously descend into the depths of hell to escape this well and true mortification.

 

Zayn skips over Marcel, going straight to his sister, unsure of whether he's about to shake her by the shoulders or by the neck. His hands thankfully go for the first. "You're too young to be doing this! You're just a little bean! Where did you ever learn that?!"

 

Meanwhile, Ed is wiggling his eyebrows at Marcel who is still on the ground. He starts pushing his index finger in and out of a hole made by his other hand. "Impressive," he mouths silently, not wanting to die by the hands of the other twenty year old who is currently having a crisis over his sister's innocence.

 

"It's not like we were going to have sex," Veronica replies, voice muffled by the material of Zayn's shirt flooding her mouth as he pulls her into a death grip hug.

 

"I don't want any part of your body near boys."

 

Veronica struggles but manages to push away her string bean brother. "I do what I want."

 

"I'll tell mom," he threatens, thinking he's won the upper hand.

 

"I will kill you."

 

There's something in the way her words come out, scarily void of emotion and serious that makes all three guys stop and stare at her.

 

"I will purée your internal organs from the outside."

 

More terrified stares.

 

"We have a project to complete." With that Veronica pulls Marcel off the floor and back into her room, shooting Zayn one more advisory glance before she shuts and locks the door.

 

Marcel doesn't do anything but watch as she calmly strides over to a shiny white desk, sits pristinely, and opens her baby pink MacBook. "I plan to finish this thing tonight so I don't have to worry about it later," she smiles over at the flustered boy as if none of that just happened. "Care to help?" After a moment of hesitation, Veronica's eyes narrow playfully. "I'll owe you one," she adds with a suggestive smirk.

 

Marcel cautiously joins her against his better judgement, and they're done in just a few hours.

 

Veronica stretches and smiles, admiring their teamwork while Marcel pulls out his phone to check his messages. "It's perfect." After a second of silence, she notices Marcel isn't agreeing with her but clutching his phone with a pissed off look. "What's wrong?"

 

"Edward."

 

"What about him?"

 

"Apparently, I've got no ride home because he and your brother are 'higher than a motherfucker'."

 

Instead of acknowledging his source of distress, Veronica giggles in response. "You said fuck."

 

"What?"

 

"You said fuck. You've literally never said anything except bitch."

 

"So?" he retorts cleverly.

 

"It's hot," she smiles reassuringly, leaning across the desk to slide her hand over his.

 

This time instead of freezing up like a potato, Marcel snatches his hand back like he's been burned. "No! We aren't doing this again."

 

Veronica pouts, for real this time, and lumps back in her roller chair with her arms crossed. "Fucking Zayn. I was so close. So close! I almost had your dick in my mouth. You were literal fucking putty in my hands, and he ruined it!"

 

Marcel's phone lights up, distracting him from answering.

 

_**Edward: ayy lmao stay the nite w ur gf** _

 

Veronica reads the text upside down then starts bouncing in her seat and clapping in excitement. "We can have a slumber party! We can watch Netflix and eat snacks and talk shit about other people!"

 

"Absolutely not."

 

[][][][]

 

"I can't decide if I actually hate you or not," Marcel grumbles as Veronica throws a pair of Zayn's pajama pants at him along with the white t shirt of Marcel's that she'd borrowed that one time.

 

Veronica flits over to her bed and sits patiently, staring at him as he stands oddly in the middle of her room, clutching the two articles of clothing.

 

Marcel gives her an awkward look, not wanting to be impolite and kick her out of her own room.

 

"Go on," is her reply.

 

He groans knowing that there's no winning this battle, although he takes one small victory in turning so that his back faces her.

 

His vest comes off and then his button up. And then his undershirt.

 

"Well hot fuckin damn," Veronica mumbles, mesmerised by how surprisingly toned his body is under the outfit. Where Edward is bulked to all hell, Marcel is a leaner sort of fit, like a swimmer or a runner. 

 

Marcel just shakes his head and replaces the dirty shirt with the clean one, then unbuckles his belt and his shucks his slacks. Veronica can already tell that Zayn's pants aren't going to fit, but she feigns ignorance as a disgruntled Marcel turns around looking like a giant in a leprechaun's capris. Also, Veronica can see the outline of his  _thang_  through the tight pants.

 

"I don't think these are going to work."

 

"Fuck, look at that anaconda."

 

Marcel splutters then huffs then glares, covering his manhood with his huge hands. "Don't start this," he growls. "Go see if Zayn has something bigger."

 

Veronica mentally applauds Marcel for his assertiveness, hopping off the bed obediently to do as told, but not with out stopping in front of him. Her nail scrapes the skin gently as she drags it down his chest without breaking eye contact. "Yes sir."

 

She doesn't get to fully appreciate the floored look on Marcel's face as she disappears down the hallway.

 

[][][][]

 

"What do you want to watch?"

 

Veronica is currently sifting through her drawers, looking for her little black cotton sleep shorts. She already has a white tank top with little pink hearts laid out, but those pesky shorts are hiding from her.

 

"I don't know." He's just clicked on her tv's Netflix app. "You watch Supernatural?" he asks, sounding pleasantly surprised.

 

"Oh yeah. That's my shit. What season are you on?"

 

"I'm all caught up."

 

"Ooh, aren't you special," Veronica teases, closing one drawer and moving to the next. "I'm almost done with 8, but I've watched the first five like seven times."

 

"What's your favourite episode?" he challenges.

 

"Season five, episode twenty-one. O Death more like O Fuck. That bit fucked me." Veronica pops up in victory waving the little shorts around over her head in her happy dance. Without even thinking, she shimmies out of her skirt and then her top, too used to locker room situations and Harry's odd "we're all girls here" thing.

 

"What are you doing?!"

 

And it is at this moment that Veronica realises she (a) done fucked up because (b) she did not wear a bra that night and her nipple stickers are across the room. So, like any normal person, Veronica shrugs and looks over her shoulder at Marcel likes it's nothing even though she's totally nipping from excitement. "Changing."

 

"You're naked!"

 

"Yes. This is true."

 

"Put on a shirt!" Marcel crows, covering his eyes.

 

"Alright alright." 

 

"Is it safe to look?"

 

Veronica grins like Satan, resisting the urge to cackle. She places the shirt back on the dresser and turns around. "Yep."

 

"Okay, I-  _oh fuck_."

 

"What?"

 

"You- and- those..."

 

His eyes are glued to her chest as he practically drools. Well, not really "drools" because it's still Marcel after all but the fact remains that he is admiring her rad titties.

 

"Do you want to touch them  _now_?"

 

Marcel only whines in the back of his throat, unable to actually protest, prompting Veronica to saunter over to him, her little lavender panties contrasting the tan skin of her hips. She kneels daintily on the edge of the bed next to Marcel, butt resting on her heels. Her soft hands take one of his larger ones and guides it onto her stomach. This is his out. If he doesn't want this, the feeling of her skin under his hand is the little touch of reality to remind him that now would be the time to back out. Just to be sure, she looks deeply into his eyes. Yeah, she wants this for some unfathomable reason, but she would never want to pressure him into anything like the way that she has been so many times.

 

When he doesn't pull away, a tiny smirk tugs at the corner of her lip before she bites down on it. She pushes his hand further up along her side, then around over her breast.

 

He releases a shaky sigh, staring at where his hand connects with her flesh. He doesn't do anything though. Just looks.

 

Veronica puts pressure on his hand, squeezing it around her.

 

Suddenly, Marcel speaks up, startling Veronica out of the trance-like silence. "It's very squishy. Very... nice. This is an enjoyable experience." 

 

  
_That_. That causes Veronica to burst out laughing her ugly donkey laugh. "You're so great!" she cries, nearly choking from how hard she's laughing. "Ten out of ten. Would try again."

 

At first, Marcel looks confused and a little offended, but it's just impossible not to laugh along when Veronica is braying like a zebra while still holding his hand on her boob. "You're such a dick," he grins.

 

"I want to insult you, but honestly I'm just so proud of you for not making this weird. Well, I mean you made it weird but it's not awful."

 

Before Marcel can so much as reply, Veronica's already sat herself in his lap. Her arms rest on his shoulders with her fingers clasped behind his neck. She wiggles around to get settled, but freezes when Marcel lets out a strangled moan. Her eyes slowly meet his, a giant open-mouthed smile taking over her face.

 

"You're an evil, evil person," he replies, voice strained. His head falls back as a frustrated puff of air escapes his lips.

 

Simpering, Veronica shifts her hips slightly to be met with a weak glare. "Do not."

 

"You don't want me to?" she asks, fluttering her eyelashes innocently.

 

"Don't do it."

 

"You don't want me to?"

 

"Malik," he warns.

 

"Styles."

 

"Veronica."

 

Veronica leans in and squares her eyes challengingly at Marcel before giving a full roll of her hips. She relishes in the way his pelvis jerks out of his control, his head falling back again with a loud groan. She takes this as her invitation to grind down into his lap again.

 

"I hate you," he moans as she does it again.

 

"Not enough," she sing songs into his ear, her hands reaching to bring his back up to her chest. She rolls his fingers around her nipples, her hips still working in circles. She pushes his hands down her body and over the little purple elastic bands stretched around her hips. They follow the bands around, their hands finally settling on her ass.

 

" _Ohh_..."

 

Veronica recognises that tone and bares down on him, speeding up. They'll have to work on his endurance although it is quite the compliment to her that she's got him so close so quickly. He's probably wanted to fuck her for weeks. Maybe even years. Veronica thinks she ought to start calling her vagina "Disney World" because it's where dreams come true.

 

" _Ughfuckveronica_ ," he groans deeply, pelvis stuttering beneath her as his nails dig into the flesh of her ass. He rolls his hips up to meet hers a few times before his body collapses back down, his huge eyes opening to half-heartedly glare into Veronica's very self-satisfied ones. "You're too good at that."

 

"Yup, I know... Well I'm going to get up now because your jizz is seeping through the leg of your shorts into my underwear and I don't want to get pregnant, so I'll be back with a new pair of shorts for you then we can put on something and go to sleep."

 

When Veronica gets back, Marcel is standing uncomfortably by the door, the look on his face probably from the sticky wetness on his thigh. She hands the shorts to him, sliding in front of him as he goes to leave. "Where are you going?"

 

"To wash the semen off of me," he deadpans, unsuccessfully trying to side step the girl again.

 

"I could lick it off."

 

Veronica squeals in excitement as Marcel doesn't even blink, just lifts her up and relocates her whole body out of the way. It cannot be stressed enough how much Veronica loves being manhandled.

 

 As soon as he's gone, she jumps into her bed with her phone, nearly texting the group chat in excitement before she remembers and backspaces feverishly. It kind of sucks that she can't tell her any of her friends about the dick she's hopefully about to get. In the last thirty minutes, Veronica has come to terms with that fact that she's just sexually attracted to Marcel because she's so deprived of human touch lately. Also he smells good. And manhandles her. And he's smart. And his glasses are cute.

 

Veronica shivers for a second, willing away the out of place thoughts. There's no way she'd ever want to actually date Marcel. He's just not up to standards, and never will be. She startles as he renters the room.

 

"Are you alright?"

 

"Yeah," she says quietly, scooting over to make room for the sizeable teen while he pauses to turn the light off. "I'm just tired." Not a lie.

 

Not the truth.

 

"Regretting it so soon?" Marcel jokes, except he kind of sounds like he means it despite the small smile on his pink lips. He pulls back the fluffy white blanket and slides in next to her, and just to fight off whatever this feeling is, Veronica cuddles up against him. Just to prove that he doesn't affect her in anyway.

 

"Hey, um. I don't want to sound like a jerk or worse, but just to be clear... I don't really want... we aren't... like... uh-"

 

"I know," Veronica replies calmly as if she understands and doesn't want to scream in his face that this is supposed to be the other way around.

 

Marcel sighs, running a hand through his formerly pristine hair. "I feel like the world's biggest douche right now."

 

"The world's biggest douche broke up with me already. You're more of a doucheling." Veronica can't help the airy chuckle that escapes her. She's a linguist for the generations.

 

"A doucheling?" Marcel lightly laughs back.

 

"Yeah, like you're a douche squire but not the douche king," she mumbles, feeling a heaviness take over her body. It's been a while since she's had a warm body that doesn't smell like her brother or Justin Bieber's perfume.

 

"Okay, that's enough for you. Just go to sleep."

 

Veronica thinks she replies but honestly it could all be in her imagination as her mind goes dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean fuck it. I'm just posting it. I might have rushed the sexy times but i'm impatient.
> 
> Anyway, I just pumped out 4,000 words at 4 am. I've been trying to keep these chapters around 1,000-2,000 for wattpad purposes, but I've returned to my old ways for a moment.
> 
> Anyway, tell me what you think of it.... I'm really good at imagining sex but idk how I am at writing it.
> 
> Okie bye :)


	9. sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry

Look, fam. I love this fic. To this day, I am still collecting reference images and writing down ideas, but for now I just don't know when I'll be able to update again. 

I keep thinking that I'll have the time later, but things keep coming up. I'm in college right now, and I moved away for the first time into an apartment. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of drama in the past two months. Some because of the person I'm sharing a room with (ask and I'll tell bc that shit was WHACK) and some because my boyfriend is facing his own troubles and some because my car broke the fuck down and some because my physics teacher is a pompous asshole.

ANYWAY, there is just so much going on right now that I don't have the time or energy to just sit down and write out a whole chapter. I've been trying little bits here and there, but I don't want to put out something really shitty.

So yeah, this fic is far from over. At the LEAST, I anticipate 25 chapters. I really want to do 40. But I have so much in store for my characters and this story, and I will not flat out abandon it. I just need time to get my real life together. It might not be until Thanksgiving break in November that I can update, but I will.

I just wanted to let you know if you really love this story that I haven't abandoned it.

\- Kaleigh (lmao I've never put my real name on a fic that's how you know i'm forreal)

P.s. If you want to hear about my actually crazy (like out of her damn mind, 'I would make a YouTube story time video about her but I'm scared she would get me' crazy) roommate, we can talk here in the comments or you can find me on twitter @WARZONEZAIN or on Instagram @somepeoplearewild


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S YA BOI SKINNY PENIS

Marcel wakes up first, as Veronica is apparently a fucking brick and can't hear the haunting chimes of Marimba. Without thinking, he grabs the phone and answers groggily, "Hello?"

 

"Who the fuck is this?" Harry says shrilly into the phone, effectively ripping Marcel from his sleepy haze. It's then that he notices the pink phone case and nearly chucks it across the room in a panic.

 

"I asked a question!" Harry yells through the speaker. "Who the fuck is this? Why do you have Veronica's phone? What have you done to her?"

 

Marcel immediately starts shaking the ever loving shit out of the girl in the bed beside him.

 

"Whaddafuq?" she mumbles sleepily, not even opening her eyes.

 

Marcel slaps the phone against her ear, earning an angry squeak from the girl. "What was that fucking for?"

 

"Veronica!" the other girl yells through the phone, causing her to sit up with the phone, now wide awake. "Are you okay, darlin?"

 

"Yeah," Veronica rasps into the phone, needing a glass of water. She wishes she could just command Marcel to go get her a drink, but that would give them away and Marcel wouldn't spit on her if she was on fire. 

 

"Who was that?"

 

"Who was who?" Veronica plays dumb, sending a sly smile to Marcel who just looks terrified.

 

"Um, the guy who answered your phone!"

 

"Harriet, are you okay?"

 

"Don't Harriet me! I know what I heard! Are you with Percy? Seriously?"

 

"No," Veronica groans, not ready for this lecture again. One slip up, and everyone thinks she just can't get over her ex. She and Percy didn't even do anything that one time except kiss... and she may have given him a little old times sake blowjob. It's no big deal. She's over him.

 

"Then who was it?"

 

"Marcel," Veronica replies honestly, just to throw Harry off her scent. Marcel looks about ready to pass out at the mention of his name though.

 

"Don't even play. I'd believe it after the past few months you've had. You're so borderline desperate. I only know you haven't officially given up on everything because you aren't taking a laddie up the arse— Wait,  _is_  it Niall?"

 

"No," Veronica growls back, not in the mood to be insulted this early in the morning. "I don't want to talk right now. I'm sleeping."

 

"Okay, well the girls and I are going shopping, and when you decide to stop being a pain in the ass, you're invited. Actually, no. Don't even bother showing up."

 

Veronica sarcastically pretends to be heartbroken and hangs up before Harry can start another rant.

 

"I was so terrified. That was like an out of body experience."

 

"Aw," Veronica pouts sleepily with her eyes closed already. "And here I was hoping that your first out of body experience would be when I ride that fat cock."

 

"Go back to sleep," Marcel mutters, sinking back onto the bed.

 

"Gladly."

 

[][][][]

 

"Veronica Evelyn-Rose Malik."

 

Veronica's eyes flutter open, sleepy gaze being met with her mother's stern eyes.

 

"That had better not be a boy in your bed," the woman whispers, as if she can't clearly see the six foot giant starfishing in her daughter's bed.

 

"Chill, mom. It's not even like that." Veronica yawns and sits up, stretching her back. "It's Harry's brother."

 

"It's Harry's brother? But Ed-" Her mother stops suddenly, everything clicking in her mind clear on her face. " _That_  brother?"

 

Veronica nods, glancing down at the peaceful boy in her bed.

 

"But he's cute. You girls always talk so badly of him, I thought he was a bridge troll." Trisha shakes her head at her daughter's usual catty antics. The boy in front of her looks just like anyone else, yet he's treated like a leper.

 

"Whatever, mom. What's happening?"

 

"Oh, I just wanted to let you know that Liam is at the door. She says you're not answering your texts."

 

Veronica jumps up at that, rolling over Marcel's body and out of bed in a panic. "You have to stall. Please, I'm begging you. Don't tell her I have anyone. Please."

 

Veronica's mom just puts her hands up and walks out of the room. She hopes that means she'll stall.

 

"Marcel, wake the fuck up!" Veronica reels back her arm and slaps him across the face. Now is not the time for games.

 

"What the hell?!" Marcel yells back, sitting up only to fall sideways when Veronica slaps him again.

 

"Liam is here and you've gotta hide or–"

 

"Vee, your mom said you're not feeling well. Can I come in?"

 

In an act of Hulk-like strength, Veronica rips Marcel out of her bed, barrels him into the closet, and slams the door in his face. "Come in," she calls out sweetly.

 

Liam hesitantly enters the room, her golden brunette hair in tight boxer braids over her shoulders. She has on a blue form-fitting athletic shirt and black yoga capris. It's then that it dawns on Veronica that today is kickboxing day.

 

"Oh my god I completely forgot."

 

"It's alright," Liam shrugs, flopping onto Veronica's bed. "I know you're more of a mall girl anyway."

 

"Yeah, well I've been uninvited so I can still go if you want." Veronica's hand is on her closet door before she remembers. Veronica turns back to Liam and asks her politely to leave while she changes.

 

"But I've seen you naked tons of times?"

 

"Yeah, just– um, one second." With that, Veronica cracks her closet door open and slips in. Marcel is sitting on the little bench at the back of her closet giving her a _look_.

 

"You're unbe-flippin-lievable," he says lowly with an incredulous face. "What is this? Some kind of teen comedy? Am I stuck in a parallel universe? Trapped in the closet? R. Kelly? This can't be real."

 

"Listen," Veronica snips, getting impatient with Marcel's attitude. "Liam is on my bed, I need to get ready, and you need to keep your trap shut." Veronica turns to her shelf with the pull out bins to grab some work out clothes, mumbling to herself in an effort to calm down. "Nobody will find out. Everything will be fine. Nobody will find out. Everything will be fine..."

 

"Wouldn't want to burst your perfect little bubble, would we?"

 

Veronica takes a deep breath and keeps digging, tossing things on the floor as she searches for something cute to wear. She can feel herself slowly losing it though. Her hands are starting to shake and her heart rate is through the roof. One more word.

 

"Are you alr-"

 

Veronica snaps, ripping the empty bin out of the cubby and chucking it at Marcel's head.

 

He swats, missing it of course because he's  _blind_  and getting hit right in the nose. Marcel stands up, kicking the box out of the way and grabbing Veronica by her shoulders. "Get a grip!" he whispers, voice full of concern. "Calm down. Everything will be fine."

 

"You're stressing me out," she whines back as if she hadn't tried to decapitate him with a plastic bin only seconds ago.

 

"Sorry, I thought you did better with that type of thing what with Harry bitching off your ear all day."

 

"You were cuter when you didn't cuss."

 

"You were cuter when you didn't throw things at my head."

 

"Yeah, whatever. I have to get changed. Feel free to watch... or help." 

 

"Just because you sat on my dick for five minutes does not mean I'm about that."

 

"More like two minutes..." Veronica mutters, throwing off her shirt and putting on a sports bra.

 

"What was that?"

 

"Nothing. You can leave through the front door once we're gone. My mom already saw you." With that, she slips out of her closet and heads for Liam. "Let me wash my face then let's go."

 

Liam nods mindlessly, eyes looking beyond Veronica sceptically. Veronica has never been great at keeping her voice down. A second later, Liam just shrugs because she's never been great at putting two and two together.

 

[][][][]

 

They almost do it. They almost make it out of the house without any incidents, but of course Zayn has to come out of his room at the same time as the girls exit Veronica's room.

 

Veronica and Liam go rigid for their own reasons as Zayn greets them. Liam because Zayn is her god, and Veronica because she's really hoping he won't bring up anything about last night. Which he does first thing. Because he is careless. And an asshole.

 

"Where's your boyfriend?"

 

Liam momentarily stops her ogling. "Boyfriend?"

 

Zayn shoots Veronica a smirk as she grits her teeth behind a tight smile, trying not to lose her cool. "You know. M–"

 

Veronica wastes no time punching Zayn in the nuts. "You're not funny," she sneers while Zayn is doubled over gasping for air.

 

"Veronica!" Liam gasps, always taking Zayn's side like the unloyal thirsty hoe she is.

 

"Liam and I have a kick boxing appointment. Don't wait up," Veronica replies, her entire being void of compassion for her brother. With that, she grabs Liam and they are finally out the door.

 

[][][][]

 

"So who is this boyfriend Zayn was talking about?" Liam questions, holding onto the punching bag that her friend is trying (with bad technique) to pummel from the other side.

 

"No one," Veronica grunts back, trying not to split her knuckles or break her fingers by throwing awkwardly angled punches. She doesn't really see the point of training with a punching bag because it doesn't seem like it would help with hand-to-hand combat, but Liam and Enrique, the personal trainer, both insisted that she do it.

 

"Um, it sure sounds like someone. No offence, but we've all seen your love life since Percy. Boys won't even look at you."

 

Veronica stops throwing punches and throws a dirty look at Liam instead. "Just because you say no offence, doesn't mean it's not fucking offensive, Liam."

 

"Unless it's Niall," Liam smirks teasingly, choking when Veronica suddenly gut punches her. "You fucking asshole," Liam gasps while grasping her abdomen. Veronica must actually be learning something because that fucking hurt!

 

 "I will never date Niall!" Veronica annoyedly shouts across the private training room... except it's less of a room and more like a few glass walls separating them from the other gym-goers. Clearly the room isn't sound proof as about twenty heads turn in their direction.

 

"We're leaving," Veronica grumbles, eyes low and tan skin pink as she drags Liam out of the room.

 

[][][][]

 

**Lmao ur telling ppl we fucked???**

 

Veronica scowls at the illuminated screen while Liam happily sits with her friend between her legs and brushes through her black tresses. Hair brushing sessions are sort of a win-win for both of the girls as having her hair brushed calms Veronica and Liam, for some probably creepy reason, loves to play with Veronica's hair. Not hair in general. Just Veronica's.

 

"Hey, no frowning during hair time," Liam chides playfully, knocking her legs against Veronica's. "What's wrong?"

 

"Percy just texted me. Apparently, people think we hooked up–"

 

"Again."

 

"Again," Veronica concedes, annoyed. 

 

Liam hums knowingly. "Does this have to do with the guy Zayn was talking about earlier?"

 

"Maybe."

 

"No offence, but it's kind of your fault."

 

Veronica whips around with an incredulous look on her face. " _My_ fault?"

 

"Well you're being really secretive about it like there's obviously _someone_ , but like I said earlier I just can't think of anyone who want to be with you at this point other than Niall and everybody knows that he's out of the question."

 

"There are plenty of guys who would kill to be with me!"

 

"Name one."

 

Veronica fumbles around her words trying to think of someone. Right off she goes to say Niall, but that debunked itself. The only other person she can think of is Marcel, but he has made it abundantly clear that he does not want to be with her. Veronica's shoulders sink at the thought for some odd reason that she doesn't dare to explore or even question, but then she consoles herself by reminding herself that even implying it's him would be social suicide. Because she's on a higher level than him. So he doesn't even matter.

 

"I _would_ ," she stalls, a lie brewing, "... but I don't even know his name."

 

Liam's eyebrows shoot up at this.

 

"Yeah," Veronica charges on, committing to this story. "I just met him last night at that Italian place on the edge of town," she half-lies. "My car broke down so he offered to drive me home and one thing led to another and..."

 

"Oh my god!" Liam guffaws. "You slut! What was it like?"

 

Veronica puts on a disinterested facade and begins to check out her manicure. "Nothing special."

 

"What did he look like?"

 

On the spot once again, Veronica panics. "Pretty eyes, dark hair, glasses," she blurts, the last part completely involuntarily.

 

Liam scrunches her freckled nose up. "Glasses?"

 

"Like the hot Clark Kent type."

 

Liam _ohhhhh_ 's then giggles giddily. "Was he big and strong?"

 

"He was no Superman by any means, but he was tall."

 

"God, you're so lucky," Liam sighs, unwrapping herself from around Veronica. "You get to bang super hot dudes and look at your brother every day."

 

"That's disgusting, Liam."

 

"What I wouldn't pay for a round trip seat on your brother's face."

 

Veronica physically retches at the mental image.

 

Liam, although shy about the topic of sex around most people, tended to have her vulgar moments when it was just her and Veronica. Unfortunately for Veronica, Zayn has tended to be the subject of Liam's sexual fantasies ever since she broke up with Daniel a year ago.

 

"Sorry. I'm just feeling a little frustrated as of late. I'm not the best at picking up guys like the rest of you. You're all just so... sexy. And I'm all bumbley and awkward." She focuses on the brush in her hands, her blonde hair falling over her downcast eyes.

 

"There's nothing wrong with being reserved. You're sexy without being sexual. It's classy."

 

"But I don't want to be classy all the time. Sometimes I just want to be a slut like you guys. But I can't."

 

Veronica gently tucks Liam's golden hair behind her ear, slightly offended. She pushes that away though. Right now is about Liam. "Why not?"

 

"You all have great bodies and you're super confident and you're manipulative and get what you want."

 

Is Veronica hallucinating or does Liam keep making jabs at her? In order to refute both the self-loathing and the rude ass comments, Veronica replies, "That's not true. You have a great body, and you're very easy to talk to." _And I'm not a manipulative slut._

 

"I'm bulky and tall, and I scare away boys."

 

"Nothing is wrong with your body. In fact, you have the biggest boobs I've ever seen, and you don't scare away boys. You just don't invite them in, if you know what I mean." Veronica playfully nudges Liam with her elbow. "Eh?"

 

Liam cracks a small smile, but it drops back into a frown. "How do I invite them in?"

 

"I dunno. Dress like you're about to fuck in a closet at school."

 

"What does that even mean?"

 

"Wear something easy to get off, easy to put back on, that shows what you have to offer without giving it away."

 

Liam gives Veronica a blank stare.

 

"How about you stay the night with me tomorrow and I'll dress you for school Monday?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY UPDATED


	11. Chapter 11

"I can't wear this. What if I trip and fall and my boob flops out?"

Veronica mindlessly refutes yet another of Liam's many worries as she continues unrolling curlers from of the blonde's hair. Liam has been stressing since she woke up. First, it was the makeup. (Pink eyeshadow? Are you nuts?) Then, it was the shoes. (You want me to fucking die.) And the hair. (I'm going to look like the cowardly lion post-makeover.) At this point, Veronica has resorted to tuning her out.

"All done," she says, flicking the last curler onto the glass-top vanity. "Stand up and let me see my masterpiece."

Liam reluctantly rises, giving Veronica doubtful puppy eyes the whole time.

"If I ever had a moment where it would finally dawn on me that I was gay, this would be it. Shit, this might be it."

Liam rolls her eyes. "No guy in his right mind would ever find me attractive."

"Wanna bet? Let's ask Zayn what he thinks."

"What?! No!"

"ZAAAAAAAYN!" Veronica yells out, ignoring the sheer terror and protests of her closest friend.

His artfully messy black hair appears in the doorway soon enough. "What?" he snips, not too keen on being forced to chauffeur his sister and her friends around.

"We need a male opinion on Liam's new look," she smirks, feeling like Cupid. But an evil Cupid. Nega-Cupid.

It's then that Zayn's eyes flicker over to Liam, bugging like his entire life is flashing before his eyes. "Goddamn."

"I knew I looked stupid," Liam mutters, beet red.

Zayn schools himself back into some semblance of a functioning human being. "No, Liam. You look different. Like good. Not that you don't always look good. But like I need a cold shower kind of good where as normally... you're... cute." Zayn trails off, but the damage is done. He already looks like an absolute idiot.

"Really?" Liam blushes, looking up at Zayn through her whispy false lashes. The action seems to just about do him in.

"Yes, Liam really. You can sit on his dick later. We have _class_." Veronica hastily grabs her shit and gets the fuck out of there before they actually start fucking in front of her.

The car ride, however, isn't much better. Zayn keep staring at Liam through the rear view mirror, and Veronica swears that he purposely takes the route with more speed bumps.

"Get out of my car, Veronica," Zayn demands as soon as they pull up to the school while maintaining eye contact with Liam.

"I didn't want to see you two fuck anyway," she snaps back at him, climbing out of the backseat. Both parties ignore her.

It's not until fifteen minutes into first period that Liam shows up, all traces of her nude lipstick gone. The girl smiles sheepishly at the teacher as she makes her way over to her seat.

"Well, well, well," Harry smirks, turning around in her seat to face Liam. Like always, her chocolate brown curls are tied in a pristine ponytail that bounces with her every word. "What have you been up to?"

"Nothing much," Liam smirks right back, knowing that she's about to make Harry hella jealous. It's not every day you have the upper hand against Harry Styles. "Just sucked Zayn Malik's dick so hard he cried."

Harry's jaw drops while Veronica groans. "Could we maybe not brag about my brother like that?"

" _You_? With _him_?" Harry looks like she's about to have an aneurysm. Zayn is somewhat of a pinnacle of good looks in the town. Maybe even the state. But, unfortunately for most, he refuses to date minors— Harry included.... Liam apparently not.

Veronica supposes this will end one of two ways. Either Harry will lead a vindictive smear campaign against Liam throughout the school, or Harry will stake her through the heart. By the not-so-subtle twitch of Harry's eye, it will probably be the latter.

To both of the girls' surprise, however, Harry straightens up and shoots Liam a closed-lipped smile before turning back around to face the front of the classroom.

Liam and Veronica share a look of disbelief behind Harry's back. It's not in Harry's nature to let go of something she wants without so much as a scratch. She's a very predictable creature. Not to say that she's easily outsmarted, but that she has a very certain way of doing business so that she stays on top. Harry does not admit defeat. She does not accept defeat.

Liam should be more terrified now than ever.

[][][][]

"Wow, Liam, you look really good today. What happened?" Eleanor complements (kind of), as Liam joins the rest of the group at the table.

Liam blushes and shrugs, back to her normal self. "Nothin much. Veronica just helped me get ready this morning."

"Veronica?" Harry repeats with a twinge of betrayal in her voice. "You didn't tell me this," she says more calmly, but her knuckles are white as she grips onto her plastic fork. The statement is directed at Veronica who just shrugs in response. Nothing she says will make Harry happy at this point.

Realising her mistake, Liam jumps into the conversation. "I asked her to help me," she lies. "Because I wanted to look like you guys." Liam gives Harry a hopeful smile.

Harry just stares her in the eyes silently, her pretty olive eyes cutting into Liam's warm brown ones. Finally, Harry breaks eye contact, looking down as she casually gathers another forkful of salad. "Well if you didn't eat like a pig maybe you would."

Louise cackles loudly as if Harry's just said the funniest thing in the world.

" _Harry._ " Surprisingly, it's Nicole who speaks out. "Why would you say that? What's wrong with you?"

Harry doesn't even flinch at Nicole's scathing tone. In fact, she smiles as Liam's lip begins to quiver. "Nothing. Just reminding everyone of their places. I'll thank you not to forget yours, Grimshaw." Harry stands up with her purse then pauses, looking at her trash on the table. "You'll handle this, won't you, Liam?" She laughs meanly in response to her rhetorical question. "Of course you will." With that, Harry prances out of the cafeteria with Louise in tow.

As soon as Harry's out of sight, the remaining girls all rush to ask Liam if she's okay.

Veronica leans over and hugs Liam as the girl lets out a little sob.

"I'm just happy I'm alive," she smiles through the tears, allowing Eleanor to hand her a tissue.

The girls seem to go back to normal chatting out the remainder of lunch period, except Veronica who has never been more angry in her life.

Except when she was four in her preschool's fall program and the teacher asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said "a fish" and everyone laughed at her including her own parents and she never felt more betrayed in her life because fuck them they said she could be whatever she wanted.

[][][][]

"Darlin, ya look tense."

"Not today, Niall," Veronica sighs two classes later, still upset from earlier.

"I'll kill em," he says suddenly, deadly serious.

"Who?"

"Whoever you want me to."

"Jesus, Niall. Chill."

Veronica is on her way to Spanish, which Niall does NOT have, but he insists on pestering her the whole way there. "Someone was just being a bitch to Liam earlier, and I'm mad."

"Is it because she was choking on a Zayn-flavored corn dog in the baseball complex car park this morning?"

Veronica punches Niall in the gut as he laughs at her disgusted face. "You're fucking gross. Don't talk to me. Also how do you even know that?" She gasps. "Are people talking about it?"

Niall laughs and tries (unsuccessfully) to hold Veronica's hand, which is really inappropriate while they're talking about her brother's corn dog. "No," he coughs, embarrassed. "I saw them." He awkwardly tucks his hands into his pockets instead.

"What were you doing at the softball complex?"

"I dabble."

"In watching people fuck?" Veronica smirks at Niall, the boy blushing in response.

"In baseball."

"Just like you dabble in soccer and basketball and football. Is there anything you can't do?"

Her sarcasm doesn't deter him in the least. "I can't take you on a date."

"And you're smart too."

"I may be smart, but I'm a fool for you," Niall fake swoons, clasping his hands beside his cheek.

"You are smooth, I'll give you that," she laughs, pausing by the entrance to her class or, as her teacher likes to call it, 'a magic portal to a place where nobody can speak English only Español'. "See you later," Veronica says, feeling awkward tension as if they were standing on her doorstep after a first date deciding whether or not to kiss.

"Yeah," is all Niall mumbles before turning in the direction they just came from to high tail it to his next class.

[][][][]

Volleyball practice that afternoon is okay. It's even oddly therapeutic for Veronica to sweat off some of her frustration, which is odd because usually she hates it.

Volleyball can be quite an unrewarding sport. No matter how long you've played, your wrists still swell, your forearms keep bruising, and your knees always ache. But when it does decide to reward you, you wish you'd gone with soccer instead because at least people show up to those games.

Veronica usually loves to lament about how much she hates volleyball during practise, but today it's all about imagining Harry's stupid perfect face on the ball every time she hits it. Harry has no right— no fucking right— to treat Liam the way she does. She has no right to treat anyone the way she treats them. Like yeah Veronica is mean as shit, but she's not about to trigger eating disorders in anyone, much less one of her closest friends.

And Liam just _takes it_. Like she _deserves_ it. And it pisses off Veronica more than anything Percy could ever do to her.

"Malik!" coach shouts, snapping her fingers in her face.

Veronica's red-hazed vision is suddenly replaced with reality as she realises where she is.

"Are you alright, hun?" the woman asks, cautiously taking the volleyball Veronica had been bumping and spiking into the wall repeatedly. "You seem a little stressed."

"I'm fine," Veronica replies monotone, still feeling a bit disconnected and floaty.

"Why don't you go cool down for a sec?"

Veronica shrugs and makes her way over to the bleachers, grabbing her water bottle. She sits down and mindlessly watches Nicole and Liam pass the ball back and forth as she sips. Nicole seems to be babying Liam which is odd because Nicole is third in line to be the King of Hell. At least she's not a complete douchebag.

An hour later, Veronica throws her bag into the back of Zayn's mom car. She gets in the front seat with Liam having gone home with her mom.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm alright!" Veronica screeches angrily. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?!"

Zayn gives her the kind of look that says 'what you just did? Yeah, that's why', before putting the car in drive.

"Look, I'm just a little on the stressed side right now. Everyone knows Liam shalala'd your dingdingdong. And by everyone I mean Harry and Niall and everyone at our table and jesus, Zayn!" Veronica explodes suddenly. "You couldn't have gone somewhere else to do it? The fucking parking lot? Now, Harry is jealous as fuck and being a bitch to Liam, and I'm caught in the crossfire because in some odd way I guess I helped my best friend to suck my brother's dick!" Veronica is so worked up she can physically feel the tips of her ears going hot. They might even blow steam given a second.

Zayn, on the other hand, is blushing all the way down to his chest. What's more embarrassing than your sister chastising you for getting a blowjob?

Veronica throws herself back into the seat with her arms crossed, grumbling something dramatic about how Zayn is ruining her life.

"It's... it's just gossip... it'll blow over... right?" Zayn asks nervously, clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles.

"Don't ever say the word 'blow' to me again, Zayn. Or 'corn dog'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry. I'm such a fucking derp. I'be been sitting here on a finished chapter for like 2 weeks and I didn't think to post it because I forgot to post it with Thanksgiving and final exams back to back. 
> 
> Anyway, let me tell you how I trolled myself at Thanksgiving. So I connected my phone to the speaker in the kitchen so I could play DJ. After a while, I get tired of picking songs so I set my library on shuffle.
> 
> Fast forward an hour later.
> 
> Everyone's in the kitchen saying their goodbyes, including children. We're all having a good time then the radio blasts "CUM GIRL I'M TRYNA GETCHA PUSSY WET" AND I WAS SO FUCKING FLUSTERED I COULDNT FIGURE OUT HOW TO UNLOCK MY PHONE IN TIME BEFORE EVERYONE KNEW WHAT HE WAS SAYING I CANT BELIEVE I PLAYED MYSELF WITH A SONG I DOWNLOADED TO WRITE THIS FIC I WANTED TO D I E. OF ALL THE GOT DAMN SONGS THAT COULD HAVE PLAYED I ENDED MYSELF


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a lil something. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm feeling p shitty lately and I have to be in a good mood to write this. This fic is not forgotten. I promise.

Veronica sighs in relief as she finally enters the office the next afternoon after the bell rings. So many people asked her about her brother's penis today. So. many. people. It's a blessing to see that head of meticulously combed back hair knowing the person it belongs to would never partake in the school's tom foolery.

"Oh, hey," Marcel says casually as Veronica sits down in the rolling chair beside him.

"Hey," she huffs back, fully over the day and also existing.

"So," Marcel begins with a smirk that can mean absolutely no good. "I heard a certain someone is livid because someone else served your brother a little buccal onanism."

Veronica scrunches her face up like the Elle Woods she was always meant to be. "A what?"

"A little coitus oralis."

"Okay, can you say that again but this time translate it from nerd?"

"Your brother got his dick sucked by Liam," he laughs, laughing even harder at her appalled face.

"Not you too!"

"Wow, I sure wish I worked in here. Sounds like y'all are havin a hoot and a half." A pretty blonde girl sets a stack of folders on the counter in front of the two, her friendly green eyes sparkling. If she isn't just the image of southern perfection... golden blonde hair, wide peridot eyes, and freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose.

Normally, Veronica would not have a problem with this girl. Her name is Amberleigh, and she's very nice. She's on the school's track team and about every charity committee formed. She's overall a sickeningly fantastic person, but it's terribly hard to appreciate her devastatingly perfect existence when, in under 3 seconds, she's managed to turn Marcel bright red with just a few friendly words.

Don't get Veronica wrong. She's not jealous... because, like, what is there to be jealous of? It's just Marcel, and he's not shit, and this girl ain't shit compared to her either. Veronica is on the very edge of physical perfection, while this girl would be all the rage in 2008 with her over-glossed lips and chunky belt buckled right under her boobs which doesn't even help them that much anyway. Veronica is so 3008.

"Sorry I haven't been through very often," the girl smiles at Marcel, opening one of the files. "It's been hectic down in the counsellors office. I've brought half of this year's student registry." Amberleigh pauses, only then acknowledging Veronica. "Veronica, is that you?" she grins, surprised to see Veronica doing anything but sports and fucking up other people's lives. "Finally got into the volunteering spirit, huh?"

"Detention, actually," Veronica deadpans, trying not to laugh at the girl's timid 'oh'.

The girl goes back to conversing with Marcel after that as she walks him through how to enter the file information into the system.

Veronica unlocks her phone and starts scrolling down Instagram. She tries to focus on Kylie Jenner's gummy bears and Selena Gomez's overly sweet captions, but her mind keeps wandering off, trying to figure out why the other girl fucks up Marcel so easily but she has to literally show him her boobs to get a reaction. Veronica is a masterpiece of a human. Why is this so hard for her? Why does she care?

"You alright, hun?" a disgustingly sweet voice says after a few minutes.

Veronica then notices that she's been clenching her jaw angrily for the past 5 minutes while listening to them.... dare she say _flirt_? That word sends a feeling of dread through her gut. What does this girl have that she doesn't? A moral compass? WHO FUCKING NEEDS ONE.

She still recovers smoothly, locking her phone and tossing it to the side. "I will be when people stop asking me about my brother's penis."

The blonde blushes bright red, spluttering and unable to come up with a decent reply. She quickly turns to Marcel. "Well, that's all you need to know, I guess. See ya!" With that, the girl scurries out of the room.

"What the hell was that for?" Marcel demands as soon as the girl and her long, little house on the prairie hair are out of sight.

"She asked, and I answered. Why does it have to be about something?"

"I don't know considering there's nothing logical for it to be about."

If Marcel thought he was about to hurt V's feelings with that petty little remark, a bitch was dead wrong. Veronica just shoots Marcel a knowing look. "You're the one who wants to dick her down so don't make this about me."

"Nonsense!" Marcel squeaks. "I don't want to... do _that_."

"'That' as in penetrating her walls with your king kong schlong?"

"I hate you."

"The feeling is mutual, however, I believe that I now have something to offer you."

"Besides your body every five minutes?"

Veronica looks Marcel in the eye, appearing uninterested. "Which you are a fool not to accept, but I digress. I can help you get your emotional dick wet, to dip your feelings wick, if you will."

"I will not." Marcel looks scandalised, to which the girl hums disapprovingly.

"Okay, but when someone else balls up and asks her out, don't forget you had your chance."

Marcel side-eyes Veronica, grumpily grabbing the pile of Manila folders off the counter. It's only a few minutes before he breaks with a heaving sigh.

"What can you even do about it?"

"Are you really asking me that?" Veronica shoots him a deceptively innocent smile to which he shrugs understandably, realising his mistake. "Here's what I want from you–"

"Of course you wanted something."

"Listen, you lick my back I'll lick yours."

"That's actually not how you say that surprisingly."

"I don't fucking care. The point is I need you, you need me."

Marcel sighs again. There's nowhere to go but up for him. How much could it really hurt to at least listen to her proposition?

Veronica giggles and claps her hands in excitement taking his resignation as affirmation. "I need you to be my locker room correspondent. I want to know what guys are saying that they wouldn't say in the presence of a chick."

"What makes you think they would say it in front of me?" he replies sceptically.

"No offence, but you're basically invisible. You're the perfect fly on the wall. Now here's what I can do for you. Not only can I help you 'accidentally' run into her more often than just these little office rendezvous, but I can also coach you on how to act like a normal functioning human being around her."

"I.... I'm normal."

Veronica touches her heart and aww's, before placing hand on his shoulder with a sympathetic smile. "Oh.... sweetie.... no, you aren't. You look at her like she could kill you at any moment and you'd like it."

Marcel snatches his arm back and returns to typing. "I do not."

Veronica shrugs with a smirk. She picks her phone back up and continues scrolling through her feed.

"And how could we ever run into each other?" Marcel questions again with another heaving sigh. "We have nothing in common, and she's always busy."

Veronica can see the apprehension in his eyes as she smiles widely, both of them knowing she's won.

"She's heading a bake sale for animal prosthesis research. Do you bake?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another update really soon to make up for the short chapter after months

"It is Gamora! She is escaping with the orb!" Nebula states dramatically onscreen as Veronica shovels another handful of mini gummy bears into her mouth. She made sure beforehand to sort out the orange and green ones for Zayn to eat as they are sickening and unfit for her tastebuds.

She's currently laid across the end of Zayn's full size bed, pigging out on an assortment of candies and junk food as the pair watch _Guardians of the Galaxy._  This is maybe the third time they've watched it since Zayn bought it on DVD.

Speaking of Zayn, the older boy is propped up against the headboard, seemingly not as engrossed in his movies as usual. Then again, Veronica supposes, it'd be pretty hard to pay attention to anything if your phone was vibrating on the bed with a text every thirty seconds.

"Seriously, who the fuck are you texting?" Veronica questions in annoyance, rolling over to face the irritating butthole who immediately locks his phone and tries to place it face down on the bed nonchalantly. Except he's totally chalant about it, and what the fuck is up with him? He's acting suspicious as fuck.

"It's no one," he shrugs, but the little worried dimples in his forehead give him away completely.

"Hand it over," she says, just as it buzzes again, holding her hand out like a mother to a child.

Zayn scoffs and deliberately does not do what she demands. "Mind your business."

"It is my business when it's interrupting my movie, bitch." Veronica doesn't even spare him another glance before she whips out her own phone and hits one of her speed dials.

"Hello?" Liam asks timidly from the other side of the line.

" _STOP TEXTING MY BROTHER_ ," she yells into the phone before ending the call. Veronica shoots a little smirk at Zayn's blush and rolls back over.

"How did you know–"

"I knew you guys were fucking before you started fucking. It was only a matter of time," Veronica replies without looking away from the LCD screen. "I was in denial for too long. I'm just going to have to accept that you're taking my 16 year old friend to the bone zone."

She doesn't even have to turn over to see the horrified look on her brother's face. She knows she hit a sore place with that little jab.

"Oh my god. I'm fucking a sixteen year old."

"And interrupting my movie. Now, shut the hell up!"

[][][][]

It's eleven at night now, and Veronica is feeling the fuck out of her self. She's in a white Calvin Klein sports bra and panties, but she figures if she just takes pictures from the waist up, they'll be fine to post on Instagram. No one will know she's actually naked.

She makes sure her long, black waves are properly splayed across her pillow before winking her eye with a cheeky grin. She quickly posts the picture without a caption and watches as the likes trickle in. She's in the middle of watching a video of a girl curling her hair with hotdogs when her phone starts ringing.

_**Darling** _

The name flashes across the screen, and she has about half a mind to hit decline, but she's bored. As she accepts the call, she makes a mental note to change the contact name. Better yet— to delete it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, baby," his voice slurs from the other end. There's not a lot of background noise so he's probably not at a party, which means he's drinking in his dad's shed again. It's so like him to get trashed on a Tuesday for no other reason but to get drunk.

"What do you want, Percy?"

"I want your sweeeeeeet tiiiiiiits."

"I will hang up on you," she warns, not surprised the conversation is already going south.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" he laughs into the phone, cruelly yet playfully. "Posting pictures like that when you know I can't touch you."

Veronica looks at her fingernails, trying to distract herself from the growing knot of dread in the pit of her stomach. He's going to say something she's going to regret hearing. Nothing good ever comes out of interactions with him. "You could touch me if you hadn't told everyone that I was a slut. You could have touched me whenever you liked.... wherever you liked." She adds the last part just to be mean. She's a tease by nature. It's what she do.

He groans deeply over the phone, disgustingly aroused. "Bet I could have called you, and you'd have rushed over just to suck me off."

"Bet you could have called me, and I'd have done anything."

She's trying to stay out of her emotions, she really is. But it's really hard to do when his voice still reminds her of all the good things as well as the bad.

"Because you're weak, Veronica. You're just a weak bitch who gets off on tormenting other people like you're better than them because you know Harry. You fucking gag on whoever's cock can get you the farthest. Bet you suck dick just to keep from flunking out."

It's nonsense. He's just drunk and rambling and being an asshole because he can. It doesn't mean anything. He doesn't mean anything. To anyone, she tells herself. At school he's just a good athlete and an okay fuck.

"You still there?" he grunts breathily into the phone after a few minutes of silence. She recognises that tone of voice instantly.

"Are you fucking serious, Percy? _Are you goddamn serious?!_ " she shouts down the line.

She scoffs when he whines into the phone. "Baaaaabe, it's just been so long since I've touched that body of yours, and you're always showing up to school in those naughty little outfits now. I just miiiiisss you."

Veronica laughs. She actually laughs, despite the fact that she's so pissed off. Were they in the same room, she'd strangle him with her bare hands.... Well, he'd probably overpower her... but she'd at least knock out a few teeth before he got her back for it.

"What's funny?"

"You're so fucking pathetic. You act like I need you so desperately, but here you are drunk dialling _me_ , and saying how much you miss me, and getting off to the sound of _my_ voice. All in the same breath you insult me and moan for me. You're pathetic. Truly."

"Harry's taught you so well, Veronica. T-Taught you how to be a perfect little cunt. I'm so close. I'm gonna-"

Veronica quickly hits end call right as Percy grunts loudly. She just sits there staring with wide eyes at the screen of her phone. What the hell was that conversation? She quickly dials Liam's number, not caring that it's one in the morning on a school night. She needs to talk to someone.

"What?" says a groggy voice after five rings.

"Percy called me just now and he was drunk and he started jacking off," she blurts out, now panicking because why did she even let the call go on that long?? She gets chills even thinking about it, and not the good kind.

"WHAT?"

"I didn't even realise at first because he was just insulting me and talking about my boobs."

She can just imagine Liam sat straight up in bed, golden brown waves sticking up every which way. "Were you having phone sex?"

"No! Blehck!" She shivers again, an icky feelings infiltrating her stomach. She feels so dirty, and she didn't even do anything.

"So he just called you to jack off?"

"No–yes?— I don't know! I just posted a pic on Insta then he called talking about my boobs!"

"And you didn't get the hint where the conversation was going?" Liam asks in a deadpan voice.

Veronica shrinks back into her covers, her cheeks flaming even though no one's there to see her shame. "No," she squeaks... except maybe she did. Did she? She's repulsed by the idea that she loves knowing that she's still the object of his fantasies. She can't possibly be that much of an egomaniac can she? Or maybe she's the opposite. So deprived of affection and attention that she'd listen to her ex play with himself over the phone just to feel like she's important.

"Sounds like you did, Veronica," Liam sighs, disappointment heavy in her words. "Please don't go running back to that asshole. I know you're lonely now, but you don't have to settle. You can get guys way better than him. What about the dude you fucked the other day? Wasn't he like gorgeous or something?"

"Yeah," she blushes again, this time from thinking about what she did with Marcel in the very bed she's laid in. She always has so much fun teasing him. It's a shame she has to stop now that she knows the reason why he's seemingly immune to her womanly charms. Plenty of guys would kill to be in half the positions he's been in with her. If only they knew.

"So you already know you could have anyone you wanted if you actually came onto anyone ever. You just accept the idea that boys don't like you anymore because everyone planted the idea in your head. Like yeah boys don't like you _now_ , but if you so much as looked in their direction they'd come running. It's just like you told me. You're not inviting them in. If you bucked the fuck up, you could actually run this motherfucking school."

"I couldn't run the school. I'm not Harry, Liam."

"No, you're Veronica motherfucking Malik. If you want something, go the fuck out and get it."

Veronica can't help but break out in a face-eating grin. Liam is possibly the best hype man in the world. She _could_ have anything— _anyone_. Her smile falters when she starts trying to think of what it is in the world that she wants, and she realises.

_Fuck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm excited to write this but i'm a little uneasy bc as you can tell, an important dynamic is about to be changed. This isn't even a fourth of the way over. I'm hype.
> 
>  
> 
> Pls tell me if the flow in this chapter is weird. I've read it over 20 times since writing it 2 days ago, and I feel like something's wrong and it's choppy but I don't know how to fix it.


	14. Chapter 14

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK. How is she supposed to look him in the eye? How is she supposed to be that confident bitch today when she's _this_  close to having a meltdown at the thought of him. It's been so long since she's had a crush on somebody, she'd forgotten the soul crushing anxiety that came along with it. Was it this bad before? She doesn't remember feeling so shitty when Percy would smirk at her from across the table at the bowling alley just a few summers ago.

" _Shit_ ," she curses under her breath as she glances at the digital clock mounted to the wall. She's eight minutes late for homeroom. She may have taken a little longer that morning to pick out an outfit and do her makeup, knowing it's guaranteed she'll been seeing him today. She knocks on the door, waiting for someone to let her into the locked classroom.

The teacher gives her a scathing look as she has to stop lesson and open the door. She looks Veronica head to toe, clearly disapproving of the girl's [skin tight crushed velvet dress](https://68.media.tumblr.com/5654ac83fbbb5e6ae4563220916c2cd1/tumblr_oo8jegVDlS1tx6jlho1_1280.jpg) and heels. Shit, she definitely overdressed. At least she's within dress code (or within an inch of it).

"You look nice today, Ms. Malik. Unfortunately this is a school not a catwalk. Do consider being on time tomorrow, or I'll have to assign you detention."

It's shameful, the excited flutter she gets in her stomach at the idea of being assigned more detention. She doesn't even have it in her to be mad as she takes a seat behind Harry.

"First, Liam. Now, you. Who are you trying to fuck?" she sneers in Veronica's direction, still clearly pissed. "Sorry, let me rephrase that. Who do you think would want to fuck you?"

"Well, your brother for one."

Veronica nearly chokes, thinking Liam's about to out her for her little rendezvous with Marcel. Not that Liam should even know about that herself.

"Ed will fuck anything with tits and a pulse, and the pulse is optional. It's not a compliment," Harry bites back as Veronica lets out the breath she'd been holding.

"I'm not looking to fuck anyone." Lies, such lies. "Can't a girl just dress up for herself sometimes?"

"Not in that," Harry smirks, eyeing the almost excessive amount of cleavage Veronica currently has on display for the world.

"Harry's right," Liam shrugs like the other girl hadn't publicly humiliated her only days ago, but that's what it's like being friends with Harry. She throws punch after punch, and you have two options: forgive or forget. Forgive Harry or forget having a life because she'll destroy it in the blink of an eye. It's amazing that Veronica's even in the circle still, although she suspects it's because Harry needs to be challenged every once in a while, and Veronica does a good job at fighting her while simultaneously still kissing her skinny little ass.

"I'm just dressed up to dress up. Can you guys drop it already?"

The other two girls look at each other and smirk then turn around in their seats. Stupid nosey bitches.

[][][][]

Okay. She's gonna do it. She's gonna test the waters on some rando. She just needs to prove to herself that nobody asks her out for lack of trying. She hasn't exactly indicated that she's back on the market.

She spots this guy, Nick, who took music theory with her last year. He's pretty cute. Curly hair. Brown eyes. Pink lips. He'll do. Plus she already kind of knows him so there won't be a need for any awkward introductions. She approaches him right as he opens his locker.

"Nick," she says in a voice softer than what she'd expected. She's nervous okay.

He turns around with a confused look on his face, eyes lighting up in recognition as he spots her. "Veronica. What's up?" he coughs, clearly making an effort to not let his eyes wander. Not like she would mind. She put it out there to be looked at. As long as the looking is done with eyes and not hands, everything will be fine and dandy.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to stop by and say hi. I never really got around to congratulating you on your talent show win last year."

He smiles weirdly, looking uncomfortable as fuck. What's Veronica doing wrong? She's just making friendly small talk. She doesn't think it was that bad of a conversation starter. "Oh, thanks."

"Yeah, I think the girls and I are going to enter this year," she smiles nervously, feeling like she wants to turn inside out in her skin and just collapse a bloody lump of flesh and organs and bones on the floor. This is embarrassing.

"You guys have a talent?— oh, no! Sorry! That came out wrong!"

"Yeah. We sing."

"Do you guys have a song?" he asks, continuing the conversation, but she can tell he's only asking because he feels guilty for his backhanded rhetorical question.

"We're working on it. Louise and Liam are writing the lyrics then Niall and I are going to mix together an instrumental track."

This seems to pique his interest, as he grabs what he needs from his locker while talking animatedly about how he and his brothers are trying to get the knack of recording music. "We're as good as we'll ever get at live performances, but we want to start selling our material professionally."

Veronica nods even though it's kind of boring to listen to him blab on. She's getting an almost pretentious vibe from him, and she's not into it. At least Niall can talk about his music without sounding like he's two seconds away from foregoing women and just sliding his dick between the D string and G string of his favorite acoustic guitar, Lando. Hm, maybe she should experiment on Niall next.

Not like it'd be much of an experiment, though. He'd agree to suck her titty in the custodial shed before she even got past 'hey'.

When Nick's done gushing about his guitar playing skills, she asks him if he'd like to walk her to class. He hesitates, but then smiles an earnest smile and nods.

They don't even get all the way down the hall before a bright red blush creeps its way up his neck. Checkmate.

[][][][]

By the time lunch rolls around, she's actually ready to self destruct. The closer she gets to seeing him, the more the butterflies in her stomach start feeling like pterodactyls. She can feel all eyes on her as she struts across the cafeteria to her table of friends. So she's _really_  overdressed. It's... that's fine. She still looks good so whatever.

Niall's already at the table, chatting with everyone. Veronica wishes she could feel anything other than just slightly turned on around him because he's such a fucking catch. Alas, the dull tingle in her lady bits when he wears tank tops is not enough to base a relationship off of.

He turns around to greet her right as she approaches the table. It's then she decides exactly who she's going to the next time she needs her ego fluffed. His jaw drops and his eyes bug out almost comically like an old cartoon. Whereas most days she would scowl at him until he got the hint and fucked off, she grins widely and sits on the bench beside him. Instead of stepping over the bench to sit down like a normal, nonheadass person, she sits backwards then picks her legs up as she spins around in her seat.

Niall is vermillion, confirming that, yes, she did flash him a little panty.

She bites her lip before bursting into a fit of giggles. She loves the attention. "What are you looking at me like that for?"

He holds her by her neck then, bringing his face close to hers in front of everybody. Veronica can feel the breath from his nose on her upper lip. He gazes intently into her eyes before releasing her and sitting back to her surprise.

"I don't think she's high. I don't know what's wrong with her," he announces to the table, earning laughs all around and a playful slap from Veronica.

"She's got a fucking crush on someone, and she won't tell us who," Harry smirks like the big fat fucking bitch she is. Like, yeah, Veronica's bitchy to Niall, but she's a respectful bitchy to him. She doesn't want to rub it in his face that she's looking to date, but not looking to date him. That's just cruel.

"Oh, is that why you were with Nick earlier?"

All eyes turn on Veronica, and if Nicole wasn't at the other end of the table, she'd gauge her fucking eyes out with a plastic fork.

"It's Nick?" Liam questions with her face scrunched up, looking just as unattracted to Nick as Veronica feels.

"No, we were just talking about the talent show. I would date Niall before I dated Nick. No offence, Niall," she adds at the end with a sorry smile.

"That hurt," he smiles back, sounding a little choked. He'll get over it.

Veronica pats his hand where it's resting on the table. Niall will be alright.

"Speaking of the talent show, has anyone actually started writing anything?" Harry interjects meanly despite the fact that she's not doing a damn thing but sitting on her ass and waiting for a song to be handed to her completed.

"Yeah. Liam and I are almost finished with the lyrics," Louise grumbles, stabbing her own salad repeatedly as if murdering it.

"I want something poppy and sexy. I want everyone to know that I'm that bitch."

"Trust me, everyone knows you're a bitch," Veronica smirks, popping a cherry tomato into her mouth, smile growing even wider with Harry's glare.

"Anyway, I heard Dylan is asking me to homecoming today," Eleanor brags, trying to break the tension but actually making it worse as Louise drops her fork suddenly.

"Dylan A. Or Dylan O.?"

"O.," she smiles, giggling at the impressed whistle she gets from Liam. Louise, on the other hand, looks seconds from actual murder.

"Dylan is taking you to homecoming?" she grits out. "That's so weird. I thought you already had plans."

"With who?" Harry interjects nosily.

"No one!" Eleanor blurts out in a panic before she composes herself. "I just didn't realise I had plans because no one's asked me yet," she says pointedly at Louise.

"You know they can't."

"Actually, I don't know."

Veronica begins shovelling her face full of salad, trying to eat and get away from there as fast as possible. Liam and Niall get the hint, throwing their food back as fast as possible. The three of them get up and leave in under three minutes, all three of the minutes being spent on Louise and Eleanor not so discreetly arguing.

"What a fucking disaster," Liam mutters, Niall and Veronica nodding along in agreement.

"So how's the song actually going?"

Liam sighs, going to rub her eyes before she remembers her makeup. "It's a shitshow. I don't think you guys realise how hard it is to write pop music without sounding like a fool."

"Oh, we do." Niall chuckles sympathetically. "That's why you're writing it and not us," he smiles, bumping Veronica with his shoulder to which Liam groans dramatically.

"You two cannot be trusted, alone or as a unit."

The trio spend the rest of lunch goofing around the hallways. Veronica makes a point in her next period to not bring up lunch or Louise whatsoever to Eleanor.

And then it's 3:15. The time she's been dreading all day. She's going to have to see him. Fuck, she's probably going to have to help him... as in help him win over that bitch Amberleigh.

Veronica is scowling as she enters the glass double doors of the main office, which is not unlike her usual facial expression, but she's scowling this time for an actual reason. Because there he is, sitting at the desk typing, looking cute as _FUCK_ with his fucking dumb glasses and his stupid fucking vest. She wants him dead.

"Hey," he says boredly, typing away as if Veronica hadn't just made her grand entrance of the day, causing Veronica to huff angrily in her head. She put on this dress and he's going to appreciate it.

"Hey," she parrots, sitting primly in her chair today instead of flopping all over the place like usual. She taps her matte blush nails on the desktop impatiently as she waits for him to pay her some goddamn attention.

"What do you want?" he sighs. He looks away from the screen, doing a double take as his mind registers her outfit for the day. "What the hell are you wearing _that_  for?"

Veronica can feel her ears burning. That's not the reaction she was expecting. What happened to walking into walls? "What's that supposed to mean?" she finally spits out after floundering for a good thirty seconds.

"How many clients have you taken care of today?"

"You fucking dick," she bites, punching him in the arm. She smirks as he grabs it in pain. She didn't even hit him that hard— certainly not as hard as she could have or wanted to.

It's Marcel's turn to scowl as she fluffs her cleavage and turns to the person who's just entered the office. And just her luck, it's Nick. "Oh hey, Veronica," he blushes, voice cracking on her name. He's been going through some more _'changes'_  lately.

"Hello, Nicholas," she smiles flirtatiously, propping her elbow on the table and resting her chin on her palm. His blush seems to deepen at the sound of his full name. Veronica has him in her death trap and he doesn't even know. How sweet. "What can I do for you?"

He blanks, releasing a long 'uhhhhhhhh' before what he came for pops into his head. "I just wanted to see how you've been doing...?"

"Nick, you didn't even know I was in here," she laughs playfully. She sits upright in her chair then, which effectively pushes her breasts up and out, as she twirls a piece of her wavy black hair around one of her slender fingers.

"Oh," Nick blushes. "Um, papers. I-I need... papers– forms. The guest applications for homecoming."

Veronica doesn't know where those are so she turns to see Marcel looking more annoyed than he ever has in his life, and that's including when Harry purposely blew up their shared chemistry assignment last year because he complained he was doing all the work. That was the last time she's seen them partnered up for anything.

"Marcel," she prompts, Marcel turning slowly to her with a look of utmost exasperation. "Give him the forms."

He rolls his eyes, looking like Napoleon Dynamite, and Veronica wishes they would get stuck there. "They're not printed yet. Just leave what room you're in and how many copies you need on that notepad, and we'll run them to you when the copiers have completed their current job."

Nick nods curtly, writing the needed info and smiling shyly at Veronica before he leaves.

"What a tool."

"He seems really nice to me," Veronica coos in response, pretending to actually be into Nick to see if Marcel is jealous or just feeling particularly like being an asshole today.

"Yeah, yeah. Copier #6 is open."

"I thought you said they were all busy."

"Just do your job," he snaps to Veronica's delight. He's extra spicy today. She had to physically stop herself from clapping her hands in glee. Messing with him today is going to be so much fun.

Veronica runs out 100 guest forms then insists to Marcel that she should be the one to deliver them, mostly on the basis that if anyone were to come in, Veronica would have no clue how to help them. She grabs the sticky note with the room number and sets off down the hallways. "225," she mumbles under her breath repeatedly. She's nearly to the stairs when someone reaches out from behind and grabs her arm. She's stops herself from gut punching the offender, although when she sees his face, she wishes she'd gone with her instinct.

"Percival."

The blonde-haired, grey-eyed troll eyes her up and down before grabbing her by the waist and pulling her body into his. "Heard a rumour you looked good today. Had to find out for myself."

Veronica fake struggles against him to see if he'll let go without a real fight. His grip tightens, and her body responds before she does, melting into his.

"Get off of me," she spits, ripping herself from his grip.

"Still yourself, I see. That's a shame. You go around wearing all these slutty outfits, but you're still the same fucking prude on the inside."

"Be careful what you say," Veronica snarls, "Someone might hear you admit I didn't sleep with the whole school."

"Slept with Ben."

"Wow, I think you told that lie so much you're actually starting to believe it. Hate to break it to you, but I'd sleep with my stalker before I slept with Ben."

Percy quirks an eyebrow at this. "You have _another_ stalker?"

"Yeah, I'm lookin at him," Veronica snips sarcastically.

"Veronica?"

She steps back from Percy with a dirty look, going to join Nick at the other end of the hallway.

"Is he bothering you?" he asks, trying to look buff with his chest puffed out.

"Deflate, Jonas," Veronica giggles, allowing Nick to wrap his arm around her waist protectively. She feels tingles up and down her spine from being this close to a boy who she doesn't despise and doesn't despise her. It's possible she'll have to rethink that whole 'not being a slut' thing. Maybe she can just fuck all her problems away. Like Peaches.

"Tell me if he gives you any more shit," he says, Veronica humming noncommittally in response. She only started talking to Nick this morning. There's no reason for him to be this protective over her already.

"Here's your forms," she smiles, hefting the stack of papers in her arms as they walk back toward the office. He stops her in front of the glass panes on either side of the doors. He takes the papers from her, hesitating before he steps in and plants a quick kiss right on her lips. She could've blinked and missed it. He's already disappearing around the corner by the time she comes to.

Veronica turns to see Marcel glaring at her through the glass. She points at the direction Nick had disappeared to with a bewildered look on her face. "Did that just happen?" she asks as she reenters the room.

Marcel grunts, going back to typing.

So it's like that, huh?

If Marcel wants petty, she can give him petty.

"Don't be salty just because I made Nick fall in love with me in less than eight hours," she brags, flipping her waves over her shoulder just to make sure she's being as extra as possible.

"Don't flatter yourself. He's practically begging for a girl to pay him any attention. He'd do anything to get purity-ring deep in a girl."

"Wow, Marcie. Just when I was starting to think you and Harry weren't related."

Marcel scowls at the nickname. Or maybe it's being compared to his sister. Or maybe it's both. "Since you're suddenly so adept at picking up guys, I suppose you won't need me to do any reconnaissance on the male population's opinion of you."

Veronica wiggles her perfectly manicured finger back and forth, tutting. "Not so fast. A deal's a deal. I'll be at yours Friday afternoon when Harry's at her cheer competition to help you bake something without burning the house down." Veronica pats herself on the back for exuding such confidence when she literally burned instant ramen the week before because she forgot to add water.

Oh well. She'll figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to write something a little longer this time to make up for my bullshit nonexistent update schedule.
> 
> Also I've been writing some spicy scenes. Like I've basically written 2 separate chapters that I can't use until later in the fic but one of them is oo very spicie
> 
> Ps. Anyone else enjoy that self-indulgent jonas brothers insertion? I wanted to put joe instead of nick so badly but I had to be strong because joe is a fucking nerd and the entire point was for Veronica to NOT be attracted to the guy


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY I'M GARBAGE. Literally I just got really depressed then I stopped doing everything (including writing) then I just got used in to doing nothing. I'm so sorry.

Veronica flits up to the Styles residence, in a particularly good mood due to her volleyball team winning the game on Thursday. She decided to put on another show at school today, wearing a black cotton [dress](http://68.media.tumblr.com/dda06415b34cd8a2513f6f7fe8ead5e3/tumblr_orbii4b0rC1rxaiggo1_500.jpg) with a rock n roll themed emblem and a low v-cut lace-up neckline. She wore her black leather knee-high boots with it, and a studded choker, and she's felt badass all day.

She doesn't even knock, just lets herself in the house. She has two shopping bags full of boxed cake mixes and icings, ready to slay that bake sale for Marcel. Not that he deserves it, the cunt.

Veronica waltzes into the kitchen like she lives there, setting the bags on the counter.

"Zayn, is that you?" a deeper voice calls from the pantry. Ed.

"No," Veronica replies, unpacking the bags. "It's Veronica. Have you seen Marcel?"

Clomping, graceless foot steps sound out through the house, Ed making himself known as soon as he enters the kitchen. Veronica grabs the tub of butter pecan icing and hops onto the counter, facing him.

Ed whistles like a fucking dork, his eyes raking up and down her outfit. "The school really doesn't give a fuck about dress code anymore, does it?"

"Apparently not," she replies, popping the lid off the icing and pulling back the tab. She glances at the clock, dipping her finger into the icing. Marcel isn't technically late yet. He's not even off from volunteering in the office for another five minutes. She pops her finger into her mouth, sucking the icing off absentmindedly.

Until she hears a shutter noise.

"What the fuck was that?" she snaps at Ed who doesn't even have the decency to look guilty about being caught taking photos of her.

"Since Louise has put her Instagram on private thanks to you guys ratting on me, I need something to fill the spank bank."

Veronica stares at him with a mixture of horror and disgust. "Why can't you just fap to internet porn like a normal person?"

"I can't get off to that. It's so creepy and impersonal. I like to know the person a little before I use them."

"Ed, you are so fucking creepy. Do not jerk off to that picture of me."

"You say that as if it'd be the first time."

Veronica fake gasps. "You say that as if I didn't know." She rolls her eyes, before a wicked idea pops into her head. Ed would be perfect to test on because he's there and he's male and she low-key likes knowing he's about to touch himself while thinking about her. That might be a thing for her, she realises.

She scoops up some of the runny, white icing on her finger, eyeing Ed with a dirty smirk before she holds her finger over her mouth, letting the icing drizzle down onto her outstretched tongue. He stares with wide eyes and she dips her finger back in for more, this time letting it drip onto her exposed collarbones and chest. She sucks her finger clean again, then beckons him with it, and he nearly jumps across the kitchen, appearing between her legs in a matter of milliseconds.

Rather than going in with her finger again, she takes his hand, folds down all but one finger, and dips it into the can of icing between her thighs. She can see his eyes light up in realisation before she even gets his finger out of the can. Her amber eyes gaze at him through her lashes as her dainty hands guide his much larger hand up to her face before she wraps her lips around his finger, going all the way down, then swirling her tongue around it as she pulls back up, licking the icing clean.

Just for the hell of it, she bobs her head down one more time, slowly pulling off it completely. She barely has time to react before Ed's mouth is pressed against hers in a disgustingly sloppy kiss, but she's having fun so she goes along with it, tangling her tongue with his.

"What the fuck did I just walk in on? You didn't tell me you had a chick over."

Ed jumps back from Veronica, wiping his mouth with a guilty look on his face, while Veronica remains frozen in shock with her back to the door.

"Hey, babe. I'm Zayn. What's your name beautiful?"

Veronica nearly vomits, sick chills scattering from the point his finger touches her skin as he runs it down her exposed lower back. Veronica can't take it. She flings the tub of icing on the counter and hops off it, doing a little icky dance before she turns around to face her brother. "Zayn, what the _fuck_."

"Veronica?!" he yells, a mixture of horror and anger flashing back and forth in his expression. "You were making out with my fucking sister?!" It's then that he notices the open icing on the counter and the little white streaks of melted icing down Veronica's chest. He chokes a little. "No," he whispers, broken.

"Zayn, it's really not that big of a deal." Veronica tries to downplay the situation, snagging the dish towel from the counter and cleaning herself up.

"That's just icing right?"

"Ew, yes, god," Veronica replies instantly, shivering at the idea of actually being covered in Ed's baby sauce.

Ed, on the other hand, looks slightly offended. "Look, would it really be that bad if I hooked up with Veronica?"

"Yes," Veronica and Zayn reply simultaneously.

"We just kissed. That's all. Don't get in a tizzy."

"He's 20."

"And I'm almost 17 in 10 months," Veronica says, like that makes it entirely okay.

A door shutting interrupts their little pow-wow, the obvious sound of Marcel shuffling around in his dress shoes echoing through the suddenly silent house.

"You two don't say a motherfucking word to him," she growls, putting on her best smirk to go greet him at the door.

"You're already in my house, I see," he grumbles, leading her back into the, thankfully, empty kitchen. "And you've eaten the supplies." He eyes the open icing container on the counter.

"Yeah, sorry. I was hungry," she smiles sheepishly.

Marcel opens the fridge, already pulling out the carton of eggs they'll need. "We have food other than icing, you know."

"But I like the icing." Veronica reaches for the can of icing, swirling her finger around in it again.

Marcel curls his lip in disgust. "Don't use that on the food."

"I wasn't, asshole," Veronica snips back, making a point of slurping the icing off of her finger as disgustingly as possible. She isn't in the mood for his bullshit today. She literally hasn't done anything wrong. As a matter of fact, she didn't have to take half an hour of her time running to Walmart to get baking supplies so that he can fuck some other girl. She doesn't have to spend one of her only practise-free Fridays being shit on when she's only trying to help him. She doesn't even really need him to spy for her. Her presence is a luxury, and she'd thank him to remember as much.

Marcel just scoffs, pulling forward the electric mixer. "Name calling. Mature."

"What's your fucking problem?"

Marcel ignores her— IGNORES HER. She growls him name only to be met with the same response, or lack thereof. Veronica has fucking had it. She snatches a box of chocolate cake batter off the counter, ripping open the bag of light brown powder inside it. "Marcel," she tries one more time, nearly going into a blind rage when he ignores her _again_.

She reaches into the bag and grabs a handful of powder, chucking it at the back of his stupid fucking head. She'll show him mature.

"What the fuck, Veronica?" he yells, turning around to glare at her in contempt and disbelief, chocolate cake mix now matted in his hair gel. "Did you just throw fucking flour at me?"

Veronica shrugs, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she spins on her heel about to make her dramatic exit. That is, until she feels a crack and cold slime running down her head. She gasps, egg yolk running into her false lashes. She whips around and slaps him across the face. She goes to do it again, but he manages to catch her wrist in time. Then she tries to slap him with her other hand, that one also being trapped. Realising her predicament, she settles for blowing a raspberry in his red face.

Marcel's chest is heaving with anger, and instead of backing off like a sane person, Veronica looks him in the eye with an infuriating smirk and says, "Do something about it."

And he does, holding both of her hands behind her back with one of his hands, the other wrapping around her neck and forcing her lips into his. Not that he needs to force anything as Veronica leans into the kiss, biting and tugging on his lips just as aggressively.

He releases her arms, his giant hands tangling themselves in her egg-soaked hair as he holds her face in place. Veronica grasps his biceps, digging her pink nails into the muscle.

He's not that bad of a kisser, she finds, for someone who almost never kisses anyone. He's a lot better than his brother, but that might just be her crush talking.

"Really!" Zayn yells exasperatedly in the threshold of the backyard door, throwing his hands in the air.

Veronica's not sure who pushed who away harder, the both of them falling backwards onto the tiled floor. She stares up at Zayn with wide eyes from where she's landed at his feet. His eyes are slightly pink, him and Ed probably having gone for a smoke in the backyard when Veronica went to get Marcel.

"Boys just keep kissing me. I swear it's not my fault," she pouts up at her brother, giving him her best princess eyes.

He almost gives in before he actually physically shakes himself out of it. "Likely story. This isn't the first time I've caught you two.... _canoodling_." His voice holds so much disgusted horror when he says 'canoodling' that she almost laughs in his face, but she manages to compose herself.

"And behind my back too," Ed jokes, pushing Zayn the rest of the way into the house so he can come in too and close the door. Both Zayn and Veronica shoot him a death glare. "And with my brother. Unless you're canoodling with me behind his back since you did canoodle him so hard he saw god last Friday."

That was only last Friday? It feels like ages ago to Veronica.

Unlike the other assholes in the room, Ed actually offers her a hand, hauling her up off the floor with one arm.

"Don't talk about canoodling with my sister," Zayn snips, seating himself at the bar.

Marcel suddenly speaks up. "Wait, you canoodled with her?" He doesn't sound betrayed or look heartbroken. He just seems confused, which, yeah, that's great that he didn't get his feelings hurt, but also it means that he doesn't have any feelings to hurt in the first place and that hurts Veronica's feelings the most.

"Yeah, sorry, bud. I know she's your girl, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity."

"She is not my girl." Marcel rolls his eyes.

"So y'all are just canoodle buddies?" Ed asks with the most shit eating grin.

"Enough!" Veronica shouts. "If anyone says canoodle again, I'll fucking kill myself."

"Do it, pussy," Ed snickers before being elbowed in the ribs by Zayn.

Veronica shoots Ed a glare, going back to her work station.

"Is that egg in your hair?"

"Ask your brother."

Marcel just shrugs, the two of them going back to work, this time under the watchful eyes of her brother and his.

[][][][]

Veronica purposefully tries to avoid making eye contact with Zayn to hold off the inevitable confrontation as they get into his mom car, but he's on her as soon as they turn onto the main road.

"What the fuck has gotten into you, Veronica? First of all, you're making out with two dudes in one day. Secondly, you're making out with my best friend. Thirdly...." Zayn trails off forgetting what he wants to say, still kind of high.

Veronica sighs. "Zayn-"

"I'm not finished!" Zayn screeches. "Thirdly....! Thirdly, Ed is, like, a full ass adult. Fourthly, they're _brothers_. Veronica, what the hell? Brothers? Are they double teaming you? Wait no!" Zayn backtracks as Veronica gasps horrified. "Don't tell me don't tell me please don't tell me."

"Could you fucking chill and stop trying to interfere with my personal life? I know you're trying to play protective big brother, but I'm just exploring my options. Okay?"

"Ed is not an option!"

"I just want to kiss boys, Zayn!"

"But they don't want to _just_  kiss you!"

Veronica screams a little in frustration before collapsing in the seat with a huff and crossed arms. She pointedly stares out of the window and ignores Zayn until they get home. At which point, she continues to ignore him and stomps up to her room. He's not going to tell her what to do. Nobody tells her what to do. Except her mom. And her dad. And sometimes Harry. She'll take suggestions from Liam.... but _Zayn_  will NOT tell her what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could have been trash. Idk. V is a thot.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all i'm a fucking idiot so stay tuned for another update very soon. Like within the next 2 days. I posted chapter 16 without the end scene bc I forgot I was writing it in a separate note on my phone so I have to finish and edit that then I'll just post it to the end of this chapter when i'm done.
> 
> @•@UPDATE@•@
> 
> I went back and added the rest of the chapter. Sorry for the wait. I went on a road trip and had the worst internet.

Veronica is walking down the hall with Harriet and Louise when it happens. Lunch is just about over, and everyone is clearing out of the cafeteria, so the hallway near the main stairwell is filled.

"YOU BITCH."

Veronica, Harry, and Louise all respond to the name by turning around in the general direction of the scream. Some brown haired girl with huge lips is running towards them. Actually no, she's running full force towards Veronica, no sign of slowing the closer she gets, and Veronica is in 6 inch heels. She couldn't run away if she wanted to, and ends up staring like a deer in headlights as she takes the full force of the girl's tackle.

Veronica would ask what her fucking problem is but, like, priorities because the girl is trying to claw her face off with her stubby little fingernails. Veronica uses her blocking forearm to propel the girl off her, quickly climbing on top of her and pinning the girl's arms and shoulders with her knees.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Veronica yells in the girl's red face.

"You kissed my boyfriend!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you fucking did!" the girl shouts back.

"Look, sweetheart, I've only kissed three people in the last few months so you'll have to be more specific."

"Nick. You kissed him!"

Veronica's eyes widen instantly, something like rage or embarrassment building inside her. "Nick has a girlfriend?!"

"Yes, you... you tart!"

Her mouth drops open in a gasp. "I'm not a tart!" she squeaks out, surprised to be called that despite having been called a whore, and a slut, and a whoreslut slutwhore consistently for a good four months. "He kissed me. I only talked to–"

"Alright, ladies, break it up!" a teacher, Mrs. Saunders, yells suddenly, pushing through the crowd that had gathered around the two girls. "Nothing to see here. Unless you want detention, I suggest the rest of you scatter."

Mrs. Saunders is followed by the security guard who hauls Veronica off of the girl, which is a mistake because the girl immediately goes for Veronica's hair, catching a handful of the black waves in her sweaty little hand. Mrs. Saunders has to pry the little bitch's fingers open, a few dark strands remaining in her hand that broke off.

"That's quite enough of that!" the woman shouts, holding the girl's arms as both she and Veronica are escorted to the principal's office.

Principal O'Malley seems surprised to see the other girl, his brow dropping into a deadpan look when Veronica comes into view.

"Miss Malik, returning so soon?"

Veronica rolls her eyes, arms still restrained by the security guard. "Yeah well the bitch bull rushed me in the middle of the hall."

"You kissed my boyfriend!" the girl screeches, lurching in her restraints like she wants to pounce at her.

"Your boyfriend kissed me, girly," Veronica laughs infuriatingly, the other girl being moved to the opposite side of the office.

"Miss Bridges! Control yourself," the principal commands. "Veronica, stop egging her on."

Veronica gives him a cutesy smile, giving absolutely no fucks. She knows what's coming out of this and she is more excited than she'd like to admit.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to ask a few students what happened, then I'll ask the both of you. Until then, I'm suspending both of you for the rest of the day. Mrs. Saunders, Mr. Mendez, would you mind escorting these two girls to the secretary to call their rides then to get their things."

Veronica can feel her mouth drop open in surprise. She was expecting more detention— maybe even in school suspension— not fucking OSS. Suspension from school also means suspension from extracurricular activities, and if she's suspended today that means she can't attend volleyball practise this afternoon.

"That's not fucking fair!" Veronica stomps, unable to cross her arms as she's still being held onto. "You didn't even let us explain anything! I can't miss practise because you don't want to sit down right now and do the damn thing!"

Mr. O'Malley raises his hands in surrender. "Fine, you want to do this? Take a seat. Mr. Mendez, if you'd like to take Ms. Bridges and sit with her on the other side of the room, then Mrs. Saunders can get started telling me exactly what she saw. You are the one who paged me first, Mrs. Saunders?"

"Yes, sir. I saw a gaggle of children and I knew something was wrong, so I fought to the middle and found Veronica pinning her to the floor."

"Yeah, don't leave out the part where Chloe tried to rip my hair out."

"Cheap extensions," Chloe scoffs from the other side of the security guard.

"Too bad I can't un-kiss your boyfriend," Veronica smirks coolly even though she's internally panicking that people actually think her hair is extensions. She works hard and spends a lot of money on maintaining her hair. It's an actual investment at this point. How dare the bitch utter a word about her flawless, ebony tresses? Chloe can eat shit.

...with her crispy poo-brown ends...

The girl growls at Veronica but does nothing else. Veronica would hate to have to whoop this girl's ass for real.

The security guard says his side of the story, then Chloe lies for three minutes straight, then it's finally Veronica's turn. The principal looks at her as if he's not really interested in what she has to say, only letting Veronica explain herself so it doesn't seem like he went into this with a fully formulated idea of who is in the wrong.

"Okay, here's what happened. I was talking to Nick, Chloe's boyfriend, about the talent show last week–"

Mr. O'Malley interrupts immediately. So much for the illusion of fairness. "How is this relevant?"

"Let me get to it," Veronica sighs, frustrated at the lack of a fair trial. Nobody interrupted Chloe. " _Anyway_ – I was talking to him, and I guess he mistook my talking for flirting," she lies easily, "because the next time he sees me, after school when he was coming to the office for homecoming applications, he just kisses me. In front of Marcel and everything. And apparently in front of someone else as well because the next thing I know, this bitch is screaming at me in the hallway at the end of lunch. She full-force tackled me, then I pinned her down to keep her from tearing my face off. That's it. That's the whole story– actually, wait. When these two teachers incorrectly assumed that I was the perpetrator of the fight, they pulled me off Chloe, and the bitch tried to rip out a handful of my hair."

Veronica looks to Mrs. Saunders for verification, the woman shrugging and nodding along because there's not a single hole in her story.

"Why were you talking to my boyfriend about the talent show?" Chloe asks before the principal can give his word on Veronica's explanation of the incident.

"Because my friends and I are entering."

"You guys have a talent?"

Veronica about slaps the genuinely confused look off the girl's face. Why does everyone say that?! They can be talented and bitches.

Mr. O'Malley clears his throat, getting the conversation back on track. "I'll have to hear few more students on the matter, but I suppose you two can wait in study hall under the supervision of Mr. Mendez. But if you two so much as speak to one another for the rest of the day, I will not hesitate to suspend the both of you."

The girls nod and allow themselves to be taken to the library. Veronica immediately gets out her book for her world literature class. They're studying Oedipus Rex, but honestly the story is a mother fucker to read. Veronica has never been great at deciphering what's going on in ancient plays. She's more of a math and science hoe than an art and literature hoe. Her brain isn't really equipped to analyse subtext and themes.

Veronica is sure to be on her best behaviour. She absolutely cannot afford another punishment that interferes with her time on the court. She's really getting nowhere with her book, so she sets it down, letting her eyes wander around the back of the library. She was kind of hoping to see Marcel, but then again, he was kind of a dick the last time she saw him. Well, mostly a dick since he did kiss her after all.

Veronica chokes, dropping her book as the realisation hits her. She hadn't had time to just think about it, having spent the majority of her weekend fighting with Zayn and sleeping over with Eleanor and Nicole.

He kissed her.

On the mouth.

With his mouth.

Hard.

Veronica can feel her nipples getting hard, and it sends a blush across her cheeks. Which is ridiculous because this didn't happen a few weeks ago when she was almost naked on his lap. Her head peeks from side to side to see if anyone's noticed the state she's in, eyes catching Chloe's hard glare in the process. She feels caught, like anyone could look at her and see a glowing pink "Marcel" sign above her head.

"What's that look for?" Chloe growls very quietly. Mr. Mendez is looking for a book to read a couple of rows over.

"Thinking about your boyfriend," Veronica tries to snap confidently, but her voice cracks on the first word. She's really in no condition for human interaction.

Chloe gives her a weird look, but Veronica can only reply by burying her face in the flimsy little paperback book in her hands.

Veronica continues to read the same few lines for the next half hour, not able to focus one bit. This little teeny bop crush she has on Marcel must be stopped. He's not even into her anyway according to the two second glance she got of Amberleigh flirting with him in the office later that afternoon when she was going to Nicole's car to get her volleyball gear.

It really is a beautiful fall day, but all she wants to do after seeing that is light the dry, dead field behind the school on fire and hop on in. She's grumpy all the way to the car, mostly because a _boy_  can send her from cloud nine to the depths of hell in mere seconds.... Okay, that's a lie. She's mostly pissed that that bitch likes Amberleigh and not her. Amberleigh has nothing to offer him except charity fundraisers and unblended eyeshadow.

Veronica snaps herself out of it as she finally reaches Nicole's fugly orange Mustang, casually reminding herself not to tear down Amberleigh for Marcel's stupidity. She's really bad at this whole 'being a good person' thing that Marcel seems to find _sooooo_  attractive. Bitch please.

She's leaned over, balancing on her knees as she reaches across the backseat to collect her things, when she suddenly feels a pair of hands grab onto her ankles. Veronica lets out a scream, trying to kick her attacker who is laughing loudly.

"Ow, shit! Veronica!" the voice suddenly snaps, his accent causing a click of recognition in her brain.

"I should have kicked you harder," she sneers at Niall as she scoots back out of the car, none too happy with his little prank.

"I'm sorry," he says with a smirk that shows he is, in fact, not sorry in any way. "You should be glad it was just me with the way you were waving your little bum in the air. It'd've been real easy for someone to just come up and enter you."

"Goddamn it, Niall. Did you have to say it like that?" Veronica can't help but burst out laughing a few beats later, unable to keep her disapproving act up for long. Lately, it feels like it's getting harder and harder to cold shoulder Niall the way she used to. She has about fifteen minutes before practise starts, though, and since the walk there takes ten minutes, she really doesn't have the time to be dilly dallying around with him in the parking lot.

She takes off running in the direction of the gymnasium with no explanation, giggling like a maniac. Then, for the second time that day, she's tackled, this time rolling down the grass hill just outside of the gym. Niall's elbow gets her in the boob, and she's sure her knee got him in the thigh as they tumble through the grass. Niall's body finally settles, hers hitting his with a thump as they come to a top.

"I'm sorry. I tripped," he says with this cheeky ass grin, clearly amused by the way Veronica's hair has wrapped around her face and tangled in her eyelashes. She bats at her face, spitting the hair out of her mouth.

"You better be glad I grew up with a brother," Veronica growls, but she knows she's smiling. She's no stranger to being wrestled to the ground for the remote or being unexpectedly pushed into pools courtesy of Zayn. He was a bad ass little kid. Once, he poured ants down the back of her dress because she said his chalk drawing on the sidewalk was "scribble scrabble". He got his ass beat for that one.

"Help me up. I'm going to be late."

Niall gets up immediately, slinging her gym bag over his shoulder and bowing as if to say 'as you wish'. She's expecting an outstretched hand or something, not for him to slide one arm under her back and the other under her knees. Veronica holds back a blush (poorly), very impressed at his ability to carry her bridal-style uphill. She was also still a little hot under the collar from earlier, so the skin-to-skin contact and the glimpses she gets of his braces when he speaks have her in a state once more.

He surprises her again by marching straight into the gym's open doors with her still in his arms, all the girls cooing and catcalling until she has to hide her face from embarrassment. Niall only stops once they're in front of the door to the ladies' locker room. He places her back on her feet, a strawberry blush on his barely tanned cheeks.

"Thanks for the lift," Veronica purrs, too turned on to think clearly about who it is that she's flirting with. She has a lot of pent up sexual frustration, so when she gets turned on like this, it's _all the way_  on. For a fleeting moment, she thinks about skipping the first part of practise to blow him in the locker room, but she quickly shakes that idea out of her head. Coach would be furious if she missed practise in any amount.

Thankfully, the door opens behind her, snapping her out of her haze. She almost jumps when she realises how close she and Niall are standing.

"You owe me fifty dollars," Liam smirks to Nicole, her two friends pushing past the couple with the most shit eating-est grins.

"It's empty in there if you want to bang her real quick before practise. Or stay after and y'all could fuck in the showers."

Niall rolls his eyes, none too impressed with her friends. Veronica can't tell if it's from their lewdness or because they've just cockblocked him so hard and are now taunting him about it. Nicole always takes everything too far; he should be used to that. "Bye," he says directly to Veronica, pointedly ignoring the two imps giggling behind him.

Veronica nods then heads into the locker room, Liam and Nicole following her back in even though they just exited.

"You're never going to date Niall, huh?" Liam smiles widely, leaning against the lockers as Veronica strips down.

"No," she replies curtly. She doesn't have time for their bullshit.

"You were about two seconds from bending over for him in the hallway."

"Shut the fuck up!" Veronica snaps, the warm feeling in her stomach from moments ago turning into a vicious ache. She's feeling really irritable now because now there's this sensation of an itch she can't scratch spreading throughout her whole body. She shoves Nicole out of her way and stomps out onto the court.

Veronica enters her house that afternoon feeling like she's just been hit by a bus. Coach went extra hard on her that afternoon because of her tardiness. She can't wait to just flop into bed and die until Zayn cooks dinner. September through December are her mom's busy months at work, so she's usually not around to cook, either on business trips or working late.

Which is why she's not quite expecting her mother to be waiting for her on the sofa with a stern look. "Veronica Evelyn-Rose Malik."

Oh no. She's in trouble.

"Why did I get a phone call from your principal this afternoon informing me that you've been in a fight at school?"

A shot of anger flashes through Veronica. Of course that pussy ass bitch called her mother even though he already told her that he wasn't going to write her up. He exists to make her life hell.

"I can explain."

"Yeah, no. You're going to explain exactly what happened. I left work early just to hear your explanation."

Veronica takes a deep breath before she explodes into the story she told the principal. She takes care, once again, to leave out the part where she had flirted with Nick profusely before the incident.

Her mom takes a second to react, just kind of stares at her daughter. She takes a good hard look at what she created then sighs. "I don't believe you, but I'm as exhausted as you look so just go to your room and if your dad asks then I punished you."

Veronica bites back a smile and nods her head, obediently trudging up the stairs. She throws her gym bag onto the floor by her desk, immediately starting to undress.

"Veronica."

Veronica jumps and stumbles into the door, her sports bra stuck halfway up her sweaty arms as she pulls it over her head. "Harry?!" She immediately starts trying to roll the sweaty fabric back down over her shoulders but it's all twisted up.

"No, it's fine. You don't have to stop because of me. We're all girls here."

Veronica feels a chill go down her spine. She fucking hates it when Harry says that. It's so creepy. She finally just wrestles the bra off, immediately covering her boobs with her arms. "Why are you in my room?!"

"I want to know what was up with yesterday from the source. I tried to ask that Chloe girl on Facebook, but she blocked me. What's this about you kissing her boyfriend? Nick? He's a little below you, don't you think?"

Veronica rolls her eyes at Harry as she goes over to her dresser and opens her shirt drawer. She's glad she has her back to Harry when she says he's below her because Veronica would hate to see the smug look on her face as she says the words.

"I don't like Nick. He just mistook my kindness as something it wasn't."

"That's not what Percy told me."

"Why are you talking to Percy?" Veronica spits accusatorially, looking over her should to glare at Harry. The girls had all promised to stop talking to Percy after he fucked her over.

She doesn't miss the split second of panic that crosses Harry's features. Had she blinked, she would have missed it. "I was hanging out at Dylan's house, and he was there talking shit like usual."

"Well if you know he's talking shit, then why even bring it up?" Veronica grabs her pyjamas and some underwear. "I need to bathe. I'm disgusting."

"I'll be here. Waiting for the gossip," Harry smiles, but something about it is off. She's being peculiar and Veronica doesn't like it.

Also, Percy doesn't know anything except that Nick tried to defend her, and that's it. Supposedly. Veronica physically groans into the steamy shower air when it all clicks. Of course it's been Percy spreading her business around the school. She'll have to deal with him. Liam should go with her as back up. She could use a little muscle to intimidate him. Plus, he'll have to act somewhat civil in front of Liam.

When Veronica exits her bathroom, Harry is sprawled across her bed, reading her texts. Or so Veronica thinks, because as she approaches the bed she recognises the pink phone case in Harry's hands to be her own.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Veronica hisses as she snatches her phone out of Harry's giant hands.

"You really don't have a fucking life. All you do is volleyball and school."

"I'm fine with that."

"Well I'm not. I'm planning an after party for after homecoming in two weeks and you better fucking be there. It's like I never see you anymore."

"Except every single day," Veronica retorts just to be stubborn even though she knows she'll go. "But, yeah I'll go. Is there a dress code?"

"Wear something slutty, but not too slutty. It's my party and I want the attention on me not your fat ass tittles."

At least she's honest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. Been job hunting and trying to adult. I wanna fucking scream.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hi I just wrote a whole lot nonstop. This is probably choppy and incoherent, but I'm trying this new thing where I write the scenes I want then tie them together so maybe things will actually end up happening in chapters.

Veronica uneasily enters the office Tuesday afternoon. She's a little nervous given that the last time she properly saw Marcel, she had been exposed for making out with his brother shortly before making out with him. An easily avoidable predicament, but Veronica likes complicating things for some reason. Thankfully, Niall ate with his friends at lunch instead of sitting with her because she really couldn't handle one tense and awkward environment after another. It was bad enough with Harry looking like Veronica had killed her cat after Nicole told her about all of the nothing that happened between her and Niall the day before.

He's completely silent when she sits down, which is not unusual for his personality, but usually he at least greets her back after she says hello. But today it's just stone cold silence.

It's Veronica's fault and she knows it, deserves it. She could argue that he has no right to be mad at her for.... _interacting_ with other people when he's trying to get with Amberleigh and also that _he_  kissed _her_ , but at the same time, Amberleigh isn't her sister.

"Is there anything I can do?" Veronica asks, almost timidly, but she still refuses to show him weakness (again).

"You've done enough." The backlight of the computer glares on his glasses as he stares straight ahead at the device, his nasally, monotone voice indicating no recognition of the level of snark he just dished her.

"Just give me something to fucking do," Veronica snaps. She's already dug her hole plenty deep. What's a few more inches?

Marcel irately tosses a pack of brads at a few stacks of papers that are on the indoor/outdoor carpet on the floor behind them. There's also a hole punch. "Build those packets."

Veronica does so, surprisingly obediently. She sits down and takes one paper from each of the 10 piles and fastens them together. Her monotonous rhythm is unbroken for several minutes before the phone on the desk rings, and Marcel answers it.

"Asher High Office," he snips down the line.

Even Veronica knows that's not how to talk to a caller. Her motions slow down as she listens intently to the conversation. It's a parent calling about something. She doesn't catch the question, but she certainly catches Marcel's response.

"This is the main office. Call the counsellor's office," he spits rudely, hanging up immediately.

"Hey, maybe don't talk to parents like that."

He shoots her a glare over his shoulder and rolls his eyes before turning back around and ignoring her.

"What's your fucking damage, Marcel?" Veronica snaps suddenly, surprising herself with her own boldness. Her pride won't let go. She's got to push him to the edge. Maybe if he has a cry and lets it all out, he'll stop acting like a little bitch.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Apparently not," she scoffs.

"For once, could you just stop talking?"

"I thought we were past this bullshit, Marcel."

"Yeah, well then you tried to fuck my brother."

Veronica's mouth drops open in a shocked smile. She can't tell if it's an angry smile or a happy one. Fuck him for being a douche, but also he cares! "What's that got to do with anything?"

"It's doesn't have anything to do with anything," he tries to backtrack. "I don't care what you do."

"I only kissed Ed," Veronica says for his benefit. The yellow button up and navy sweatervest on his shoulders nearly touch his ears with how tense he is. "I would never take it any farther with him. I wouldn't even kiss him again. That was gross," she adds, mostly to herself. Ed's sloppy, wet dog kisses were disgusting.

"And Nick?"

Veronica almost squeals with delight. She _knew_ he was upset that day she kissed Nick. She knew it! "Apparently, he has a girlfriend."

She swears she hears Marcel snicker a little. She lets him have it. No need to start another fight. "If you're really this desperate to be friends with me, then you've got to quit with the drama and prove it."

Veronica's face screws up in confusion. "How?"

"I don't know," he replies, annoyed, typing vigorously.

It's then that Veronica gets a very, very bad idea. Not as bad as kissing Ed, but still plenty terrible just in concept. She adjusts her dress to cover her ass as she crawls under the desk. It's solid wood all the way to the ground, so no one on the other side can see her.

Marcel actually jumps when she runs her hands up his thighs suddenly.

"What are you doing?" he hisses, sliding back a little in his roller chair to give her a bewildered look.

"Proving it to you," Veronica replies with deceptively innocent eyes, resting her head on one of the legs she's in between. She snakes her fingers around his ankles gently as she gives him a pout.

"This is not what I meant!" he whispers urgently, causing Veronica to burst out laughing as she crawls back out.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I saw the chance, and I took it. But really though, you're the only person I decently get on with who isn't a popular dickhole or a Niall." She gives him another pout, this time cranking it up from a baby pout to her princess eyes.

"Jeez, alright. Just stop looking at me like that. You're liquefying my soul."

"So I saw you talking to Amberleigh the other day..." She pushes at his elbow with a fabricated smirk, wanting to get details so she knows what kind of competition she's up against.

"Yeah, and?" he blushes, fingers stuttering on the keyboard.

"And you guys looked pretty cozy in here. What's up?"

"None of your business," Marcel growls, but it lacks conviction. She knows he's just dying to tell someone other than his mother. He proves her right a few beats later, sighing in defeat. "Amber invited me to her house to meet her family on Friday."

"Like as a date?" Veronica questions with her face all scrunched up in confusion. That's the lamest first date ever. Makes sense it would be with the lamest girl ever.

Veronica bites her own tongue as punishment for thinking that, but honestly.

"I don't know. Something about needing her parents approval."

Veronica raises her eyebrows at this, willing herself not to snort at his sudden lack of enthusiasm. "Well have fun with that."

Veronica's idea of a good first date would be heading to the greasiest burger shack in town followed by ice cream then making out for twenty minutes in his driveway.

It would probably be really fun to make out with Marcel for more than forty-five seconds. With a little handiwork, she could probably make him cum in his pants again.

Veronica shakes herself out of her naughty daydream, going back to assembling folders. It's going to be a long detention this afternoon.

••••

The next day it happens. Niall must have spotted her sitting alone at her lunch table waiting on the other girls because he steals a spot next to her before she can protest.

"Sorry about the other day. I didn't mean to insinuate anything to your friends. I wasn't even thinking about it."

"It's fine," Veronica shrugs, trying to play it cool. She's dying inside though remembering how close she came to dragging him into the locker room by his belt loops.

"We're on for this weekend, right? I don't know if you got my text this morning."

Veronica just nods her head without making eye contact, peeling open her yogurt.

"Veronica! I have a date with Cameron Saturday and I need you to come over and help me get ready!" Harry exclaims cheerfully as she bounces up to the lunch table. As much as Veronica would love to sit there for an hour and have Harry reject all of her advice while listening to her talk about how she's going to emotionally manipulate him into liking her more than he actually does, Harry seems to be out of the loop about something.

"I can't."

Harry attempts to give Veronica a withering look, but unlike all the other spineless cowards Harry encounters, Veronica just rolls her eyes in response. "What do you mean you can't?" she growls at Veronica so harshly that even Niall looks up in surprise. He's generally gotten used to the way Harry talks to people, but seeing anyone tell her no is a nightmare. That's probably why he hasn't outright rejected her yet and continues to carefully dance around her advances so she doesn't know she's being let down.

Veronica takes her time licking the strawberry yogurt off her plastic spoon before answering Harry, just to annoy her. It's working. "I'm going to Niall's Saturday and Sunday."

"For what?" she says with this ice cold tone to her voice. For all the times she's teased Veronica about Niall, she sure is possessive over him.... and like four other guys. Not that that's a bad thing, but can Harry even stand the thought of just for once being someone's second choice?

The answer to that is no.

"One of my close friends has requested that we write a song for the talent show. Her name is Jealous Annoying Bitch. You might have heard of her," Veronica smirks playfully, well playfully to Harry and any onlookers. Her insult is a genuine complaint.

When the realisation hits Harry she just shoots Niall an apologetic glance and awkwardly laughs it off. "Oh yeah. That."

"Yeah, Liam and Louise just handed off the lyrics so we're all set to start recording the music," Niall smiles uneasily.

Liam and Louise join them right as he says this, Liam sitting next to Veronica and nudging her with her elbow and this stupid little smirk as she not so subtly tilts her head toward Niall. If Liam wasn't her only tolerable friend, Veronica would choke her on the spot.

The week passes in a blur after that. Marcel isn't even at school on Wednesday so she has to sit there alone in the office for an hour. She uses this time answering phones and looking up Marcel's personal information in the database. She finds his cell phone number on the emergency alert registry and adds it to her phone, shooting him a text that he does not reply to, probably because she says who she is and how she got his number. She pretty much pouts away the rest of the week, including their after game celebration in McDonalds, until Friday afternoon.

Veronica toys with the container of marshmallow cream in her hands as she follows behind Ed and Zayn in Walmart. They're supposed to be grocery shopping for her mom, but so far the boys have only managed to pick up junk food.... not that Veronica is much better with her cereals and sugary cake decorations that she intends to eat sans a cake.

They've just turned down the ice cream aisle when Zayn suddenly stops Ed. "Hey isn't that the chick you hooked up with a couple months ago at the bonfire?"

Ed's eyes light up in recognition of the dark skinned girl standing on the other side of one the open freezer doors. She's way too good looking for Ed, in Veronica's opinion. They must have been very drunk.

"Yeah, I never got her name. Think I should go—"

Ed's thought is cut short when the girl steps back and closes the freezer door, revealing her well-pregnant tummy. His face visibly blanches, and Veronica and Zayn have to fight back their hysterical laughter.

"How long ago did Zayn say it was you slept with her?" Veronica smirks, moments from falling apart and laughing on the floor.

"April," Zayn answers for him, perfectly happy to team up on his best friend with his little sister.

"Hmm, so that's one, two, three, four.... six months. Almost seven."

It's at this point that Veronica and Zayn burst out in hideous, uncontrollable laughter, the girl looking over startled.

Her black eyes lock with Ed's widening comedically at the sight of him. She immediately turns the other way, trying and failing to push her cart fast enough to escape Ed who jogs toward her.

Zayn leans over to Veronica with a smug look as the scene goes down. "Now you know why not to sleep with him, right?"

"Besides the fact that he's repulsive? Yeah, I been knew." Veronica can't help but get a little snarky with Zayn. She kissed Ed one time— ONCE!— and she'd never do it again. There's no way in hell she'd go near his genitalia. That'd be the equivalent of licking the toilet seat at a gas station.

"Just making sure."

"Check yourself, Zayn. I've seen the skanks you come home with at three in the morning. Not to mention you're fucking my best friend, so you have zero room to talk."

Veronica and Zayn's glaring match is cut short by Ed wandering back over.

"So are you a dad?"

Ed shrugs. "Maybe."

Both Zayn and Veronica give their friend a bewildered look. This is not a thing that you just shrug to. This is a big fucking deal. Ed would be the worst father of all time, not to mention the worst boyfriend/husband. Veronica hopes for that girl's sake that she looks for someone better to raise her child with because that kid will be all the way fucked up if Ed has any part in raising it. No kid deserves to come home from school to their dad putting his dick in a jar of peanut butter.

"What do you mean 'maybe'?" Zayn asks incredulously.

"I mean, like, probably," Ed sighs exasperatedly. "She claims she's only had sex with me, but likely story. You know how chicks are sometimes. Also she has a boyfriend now, and there's no way he's not hitting that. I would never stop smashing."

"Jesus Christ," Veronica sighs, pushing past both of the idiots. She's only sixteen, so the only thing she's going to worry about is what flavor of ice cream she's about to fuck up later.

••••

Veronica is tearing up this pint of Phish Food ice cream. She's got South Park playing, her Spongebob pyjama pants on, and an assortment of sweets laid out around her.

Her phone rings in the middle of a funny scene, but she silences the unknown number. Then it rings again. Same number. And considering she has nothing better to do, she answers it. Maybe a chat with a telemarketer will make her feel less like a useless pile of trash.

"Hello," she answers, kicking back on her fluffy green comforter.

"Help me," a voice whispers on the other end of the line, sending Veronica into a panic. She's not mentally or emotionally equipped to help out in a hostage situation.

"Who is this?" she replies urgently.

"Veronica, it's me."

"Well I can't exactly fucking see you, so could you be more specific?" she snaps down the line.

"Marcel."

Veronica sits straight up at that. Marcel is really calling her? She almost squeals until she realises that he's in peril and he desperately needs her help. "Is everything okay? What do you need?"

"Okay, I'm in the bathroom at Amberleigh's house..." Veronica's lip upturns at the sound of that bitch's name. Why is Marcel even at her house anyway? Oh yeah, their 'date'. "... and I just really need help getting out of here."

"Oh? But I thought you _looooooved_  her," Veronica mocks bitterly. She'd best watch her tone before she gives her little secret crush away.

"Listen, I don't have time for your games right now. Can you just meet me at 405 Morgan Street? And don't come looking like an Instagram hoe, please."

Veronica would make an affronted noise if she wasn't already aware of what she dresses like. "What could you possibly need me for?"

"I'll explain once you get here."

••••

Veronica pulls up to a big two-story, Georgian style house. It's really long with about sixteen windows just on the front of it. The downstairs lights are on.

She shoots Marcel a text letting him know that she's arrived, and within seconds his sweater vest and slacks appear in a window a few rooms over from where she is. She can see him roll his eyes even in the darkness of the night when she gets out of her car. She didn't do her best at picking out something more conservative to wear. She can't show up in something homely without a full face of makeup and she didn't have time to do a lot of makeup, so sacrifices had to be made and she just went ahead and wore a lace up romper.

"You're not very good at following instructions."

"Nope," she smiles into the phone, popping the p just to get on his nerves.

"Whatever. Listen, in about two minutes I need you to burst through the front door and proclaim your love for me."

Veronica nearly chokes. Did she hear him correctly? No, she couldn't have. "Pardon?"

"I don't have any time to explain. I just need to get out of this whole situation. I'm going back in. Do what I said, please," Marcel begs before he backs away from the window and the curtains are closed again.

Veronica figures she might as well. This drama is too juicy to miss anyway. She waits her time out then struts up to the door and barges in.

She was expecting maybe four or five people, but there's about 15 and they're all staring right at her. They're all dressed pretty conservatively, which is probably why Marcel asked for her to come more than adequately covered.

Speaking of Marcel, he's sitting on one of the couches, trapped between a boy who looks about thirteen and Amberleigh.

"Who are you?" a woman asks, clearly taken aback at the same time as Amberleigh gasps, "Veronica?"

"You know her?" a man on the other side of the room questions.

"I'm not here for you," Veronica says directly to Amberleigh. "I'm here for him." She points dramatically to Marcel, schooling her face into a smouldering look to hide how much fun she's having. Everyone in the room gasps right on cue, except for the little ones who could give less of a fuck.

"What are you talking about?" Amberleigh replies defensively, standing up, Marcel following suit.

"You can't be with him."

"I can't?"

"No, because I love him." Veronica marches over to Marcel and yanks him down by his collar. "You're mine," she growls at him, relishing in the fear in his big green eyes before she plants a huge, open-mouth kiss on him right in front of everybody.

"Oh my god."

"ENOUGH!" a voice booms through the room belonging to the man, probably Amber's father. "Get out of my house! The both of you!"

Veronica winks at the man suggestively as she drags Marcel across the living room by his tie. Once they're out of the house, he pinches her very hard on her lower back.

"WHat?!" Veronica yelps in pain, jumping away from him.

"I said proclaim your love, not traumatise the entire family!"

"Oh, come on! You know that kid loved it! Did you see the way he was staring at my tits?" Veronica defends marching down the steps with Marcel following.

"You mean Porter the fourteen-year-old or Eli the seven-year-old?"

"Oh, shit. I forgot to care." Veronica runs her fingers through her hair, trying to at least appear remorseful despite her words.

"You're so–" Marcel cuts himself off, waving his hands around and releasing a little scream of frustration.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Veronica shrugs, climbing into her SUV. Marcel visibly jumps when she turns the key in the ignition, Angie by Cobra Starship blaring through the speakers.

Veronica turns it down a little and starts driving to Marcel's house. Veronica mouths the words to the song and dances in her seat as she drives, scaring Marcel a few times with her sharp turns.

"So, uh, thanks," he says awkwardly, getting out of the passenger seat when they come to a stop in front of the neighbour's just in case Harry is around.

"Anytime," she smiles genuinely, most definitely accidentally flirting with him. She's going to have a really hard time controlling herself now that he pretty much ruined any chance he'd ever had with Amberleigh. Veronica cranks the volume once he's gone, squeaking to herself excitedly. Not only did she get to kiss him tonight, but she's also now the only person vying for his affection. Everything is working out swimmingly.

••••

"And where have you been?" Zayn says, the second she enters the house. It's only ten at night though, so she doesn't understand why he's so suspicious of her.

"Noneya," she replies, taking the stairs two at a time.

"You come back here and listen to me!" Zayn yells at her retreating figure, stomping his foot when all he's left with is a 'no!' and a slammed bedroom door. Veronica doesn't have to tell him shit. She's almost seventeen next year. She can do what she wants.

Zayn bursts into her room not a second later, an annoyed look on his face. "Where have you been?"

"Why do you want to know?" she smirks, twirling around in her desk chair. She grabs her big Starbucks tumblr off her desk and takes a sip of the water in it. "I was with Marcel," she says after a particularly long sip of water. "He needed me for something." She knows that telling him this will only aggravate him, so that's why she does it.

"What could he possibly need you for this late?"

"Guess," Veronica simpers, revelling in the way his eyes go wide. She tries to take another sip coolly, but ends up uncontrollably snorting a few times, water going all over her shirt. "I was just giving him a ride. Relax."

Relief washes over Zayn's face, indescribably thankful that his sister is not someone's bootycall. Again. He doesn't know about all the other times though because "I'm staying the night at Percy's" was always enough of an excuse to go see him when he wanted her to come get him off. She usually spent the night with Liam after and didn't tell anyone.

"Why are you so interested in what I'm doing suddenly?" she asks him accusatorially, turning the tables on him. She already knows it's because he thinks she's out to fuck anyone within a ten mile radius; she just wants to hear him admit how little faith he has in her.

To her surprise he sighs and leans against the doorway. "I just want to make sure you aren't making stupid decisions like me and my friends."

Veronica rolls her eyes, a soft smile tugging at her lips against her will. "I could never be as stupid as you and your friends."

"Yeah, okay. You just spit water all over yourself, dork."

Veronica blows a raspberry as he shuts the door. The night did not go as expected, but it was pretty alright she guesses as she starts on her homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Ima need feedback on this one so I know if I should stop writing like this.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kinda filler and kinda not. The next chapter will be important

Veronica begrudgingly trudges up the cobblestone path to the green and white house. It's sickeningly homey with two beds of flowers on either side of the big white porch. There's a porch swing at the far end, and a festive fall-themed wreath on the door. She dings the doorbell a couple times while staring at the pumpkin shaped doormat under her feet.

The door swings open after a moment and Niall falls dramatically against the doorframe. "I've been expecting you," he says in this overly sultry voice, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah, alright," Veronica dismisses, causing Niall to pout and right himself. He looks disappointed for a whole millisecond before his personality snaps back to the aggressively positive mood he's always in.

"Come on in," he says, ushering her through the door. "Shoes off." He snickers when Veronica rolls her eyes, kicking off her heels by the coat rack.

"Holy shit. It looks like I've stepped into Better Homes & Gardens. You actually live here?"

"My mam thinks she's Martha Stewart."

"Well fuck, Niall. She might be."

Niall laughs at this, leading her to a door to the left of the main entrance rather than up the stairs like she expected. He opens it to reveal a downward flight of stairs, leading her into what seems to be a well lit basement. There are guitars and tambourines and all sorts of instruments in the back corner.

He just takes her to the couch though, relieving her of her heavy ass backpack, then flopping down on it. "Sick innit?" he says with a proud smile when she joins him.

She doesn't have a chance to answer though as a pair of footsteps rush down the stairs. It's a woman with a short blonde bob and stars in her eyes as she looks at Veronica then Niall then Veronica then Niall again.

"You've finally brought a girl around!" she cheers, rushing over to Veronica. "You're a doll, aren't you. Nice hair. Good genes."

"Mam!" Niall shouts, face and neck beet red. "She's just a friend."

The woman deflates, giving Veronica a longing look, as if begging her to date her son. "Fine. You two call if you need anything. Drinks, biscuits... protection."

Niall jumps up at this, ushering his mother back up the stairs. His face is absolutely ablaze with embarrassment when he returns.

"Your mom is a trip!" Veronica laughs at Niall's expense. "She was just kidding right?"

"Mostly. She seems all biscuits and aprons, but she's a terror."

Veronica laughs again, pulling her MacBook out of her bag. "Okay, so I don't really have much done yet because you're the music man. I'm just here to edit."

"I have an idea, but it's not what Harry wants. She showed me some music she wanted it to sound like, but all of it kinda of.... blows?"

Veronica nods, agreeing. Harry doesn't like regular pop music like a normal person. She likes indie underground techno pop with pretentious lyrics by 'edgy' artists. This is why Zayn and Ed dj at her parties and not her.

"When Liam sang me the lyrics, they didn't flow like that kind of song. It was more... I don't know soulful than what Harry would go for, but it was really good. Maybe if we make it then we can convince Harry to do it."

Niall pulls out the lyrics with a determined look and pulls up the rough recording Liam and Louise had sent him. "Let's do it. Let's start by divvying the song into parts. They listen to it over and over for a while, taking notes.

"Thank _fuck_ that parts over," Niall groans, throwing the notebook onto the sofa. "That shit was excruciating. I could never be in a band."

Veronica starts to nod along with him before remembering that she technically is for this performance. She'd made sure to give herself the least parts because she doesn't want to seem like she's commandeering the song. They'd also tweaked the lyrics, changing "blood" to "dirt" so they wouldn't seem like psychopaths. She can tell Louise wrote that line.

Niall excitedly announces it's time to start on the music, grabbing his notebook and running to the small bathroom downstairs. Apparently that's where he records. When he opens the door, she can see he's padded the walls and set up a fancy looking microphone. It's not near as nice as the studio at her dad's work, but it's alright for a sixteen year old.

It's nearly seven when she finally leaves, exhausted of hearing Niall play the same thing four or five times because he wasn't happy with it. They got the guitar, synth and a small bit of percussion edited today on her laptop. So that leaves drums, backup vocals, and because Niall is crazy, the saxophone. He doesn't even know how to write music for the saxophone so she's not sure how he's going to convey what he wants to the band nerds.

Veronica slams the door to her room, her snack in hand, groaning as she sees Harry sitting on her bed again. "Who keeps letting you into my house?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is you spent the whole day alone with Niall and I want to know what happened."

"We wrote part of a song and edited it?" Veronica knows what Harry really wants to hear. She wants Veronica to tell her if they hooked up or not. As if she would tell her if they did.

Actually, she would because it would enrage Harry.

"Veronica."

"You know if I had anything to spill, I would." Veronica sits down at her desk and eats her peanut butter crackers. "How did your date go?"

"I gave him a handjob during the movie then we fucked in the backseat of his mom's car."

Veronica chokes on her cracker, rushing a drink of apple juice. When she finally finishes coughing and taking on, she glares at Harry. "The normal way to answer that question would be-" Veronica straightens up in her chair, poking her chest out and flipping her ponytail over her shoulder in an imitation of Harry. "-'Oh, I had a great time. We went to the movies. It was a lot of fun!' Notice how I didn't mention all the times I came into contact with his penis, _Harriet_."

"Did you fucking kiss him?"

"What? No!"

"Then why does he even want you!"

Veronica snaps, slamming her juice box down on her pretty white desk. "What's your fucking problem?"

Harry slumps down and crosses her arms like a _child_ while grumbling something Veronica can't quite make out.

"In English."

"You always get the hot guys! You always take the guys I want!" Harry whines loudly, throwing her hands up momentarily before crossing her arms again. "Liam is fucking Zayn and you took Percy and Niall. What does that even leave for me?"

Veronica tries to stop herself but her eyes roll so hard she thinks she sees her brain, earning a smack upside the head from Harry. "First of all, _you rude ass bitch_ ," she growls, rubbing her head. "Percy is a dick. You don't want him. Learn from my mistakes. Second, I'm not exactly over joyed that my brother is fucking my underage best friend. Third, I'm not gonna lie. I'm maybe rethinking this whole Niall thing because he's kinda hot, but I'm not rushing into it. And finally, you're literally out here fucking jocks and models. Can you _not_?"

"I've liked Niall since three years ago, Veronica! You can't just swoop in and steal him from me!"

"Harriet, they're just boys. You want to emotionally manipulate them and ruin their lives."

Harry deflates under Veronica's pointed look. She releases a long sigh, purposely staring at the wall over Veronica's shoulder and not into her friend's eyes. "Yeah, but, like, I'd like my options to be a little more diverse."

"You know what will make you feel better?"

"No. Nothing will make me feel better."

"Want me to call Louise over and let you guys roast my camera roll? I haven't deleted selfie outtakes in a couple months."

Harry grumbles out a little 'okay' and allows Veronica to call up their evilest friend.

"What do you want?" she answers, her scratchy posh little voice tearing through the speaker harshly.

"I'm with Harry and she wants you to come and roast my camera roll to cheer her up."

Louise takes a moment, Veronica almost thinking the girl has hung up by the time she answers. "Yeah, sure. At yours or hers?"

"Mine."

"Will Liam be joining us in your room or will she be in your brother's sucking-"

Veronica hangs up on Louise. She'll not be having any of that.

Veronica calls Liam then to invite her but stills as she hears the familiar ringtone sound off in the suspiciously quiet room next to hers. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" Veronica yells at the wall her room shares with her brother's.

Harry, despite giving Liam the cold shoulder the past few weeks over this whole Zayn drama, bursts out laughing on the bed, rolling around and gasping. "What a thot!"

"Liam is not a thot!" Veronica is quick to defend, scowling at the smirk on Harry's face.

"Not Liam. Zayn."

And... well.... Veronica can't argue with that. He's brought home more than his fair share of men and women. The only difference is none of them were literal children in high school.

"Yeah, it's a little weird that he's fucking my sixteen year old best friend, but whatever."

"Fifteen," Harry reminds her, Veronica's eyes going wide.

Oooh yeah. Liam's actually fifteen, but she tells everybody she's sixteen because Harry once told her it was embarrassing to hang out with a child as if Liam could help her August birthday. Veronica chuckles to herself thinking about the moment when Zayn finds out. He's gonna vom.

Veronica's gonna vom.

"I mean, not that you're much better with Ben."

Veronica can feel her mood immediately shift. Playful banter, even mean-spirited banter is one thing. Bringing up a traumatic life experience, that Veronica has thus far done a pretty okay job at repressing the memory of, is not okay. "Consensual sex is a lot different than a grown man stalking a fifteen year old girl on the internet and showing up at her school uninvited, Harry. It's actually not as cool as you make it out to be. It's pretty fucking scary."

Nothing really physically _happened_  to Veronica. The school's security had apprehended him before she even knew he was there, but just the thought of some guy travelling hours to see her when he knew she wasn't interested is just... chilling. What would he have done if he had gotten to her? She has a pretty good idea if the messages on Instagram meant anything, and the thought turns her blood to ice.

She feels so ungrateful dwelling on this when her life is full of so many blessings, but it's hard to stop thinking about it once she starts. She just needs to keep distracting herself until she forgets again. It's fine during the day, but at night is when the shadows and creaks play with her mind.

A loud clap scares Veronica back into reality, a cackling Louise coming into focus. Harry looks guilty, well as guilty as her massive ego will allow her to be, before snapping back to her usual preppy bitch mode.

"What are we waiting for? Let's roast this bitch!" Louise claps, snatching Veronica's phone off the table. There shouldn't be too many incriminating photos on there. She doesn't really have anyone to send nudes to now, so they'd have to go back several months to find any of those. She also hasn't taken or saved any pictures of Marcel against her strongest urges. She would absolutely kill to get to play the part of the smitten teenager and set a stolen picture of him from his mom's Facebook as her home screen.

The only thing really on her phone are the few texts between her an Marcel, but she has him saved as John Smith, so that's not even an issue.

"Your titties look like a busted can of biscuits in that top. You look like the pillsbury dough bitch" Louise cackles, and Veronica sighs.

Here they go.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to say that lately I've been using instagram user @hira.xs as Veronica's character model (plus a lil boobage minus a lil waist) lately. I had another girl that legit looked like a Malik but I forgot her insta user soooooo.....

The week leading up to home coming is hectic. Sadly, Veronica’s detention has ended early due to her coach demanding she be present at their extra practises so she’s only seen Marcel in the hallway when she can’t acknowledge him. It sucks forcing herself to look the other way when they make eye contact, but she has very little time to think about it with the girls constantly conferring about their outfits for the week and their plans for the weekend. It's spirit week, so Harry, Louise, and Eleanor have all been on their high cheerleading horses all week, flirting with and pampering their assigned football player. Veronica is at least 80% sure Harry has been more than 'pampering' her jock as she clings to his arm through the hallway. It's a huge black guy named Elijah, and if Harry wasn't the epitome of noncommittal, Veronica would think they're pretty cute together.

 

Louise and Eleanor on the, other hand, have been refusing to speak all week, trying to out do each other in an unspoken competition, Louise even going as far to kiss her player on the lips when he arrived to school on game day.

 

Veronica is traipsing around in a purple mini dress and a green scarf tied around her neck. The last day was character day as voted by the student body, and Veronica still had her Daphne costume lying around from last Halloween. It's a little tight in the tits, but the fabric is stretchy so she decided to deal with it. Nicole has been barraging her all day with naughty Scooby Doo puns. Nicole doesn't even have any room to talk in her slutty Dorothy dress. At least Veronica's vagina doesn't show every time she bends over.

 

The girls are walking down the hallway right before seventh period is about to end. With a little persuasion, they sometimes manage to convince their teachers to let them out a few minutes early, especially on irregular days like today that had been interrupted by a pep rally. They're planning on hitting the soda machines before Louise, Eleanor, and Harry have to go get ready for the big game.

 

"Shut your mouth!" they hear someone yell, before there's a loud bang like someone's been slammed against a locker. Another grunt follows shortly.

 

The girls all look at each other then dart off in the direction of the noise.

 

Veronica watches in horror as Percy (unfortunately in his Fred costume) lifts his fist right above Marcel's face. At this angle, it would probably shatter his glasses if they weren't already on the floor. There's already a huge red bruise on Marcel's cheekbone, just under his eye.

 

It probably happens in a blur to everyone else, but to her it's in slow motion. Right as Percy starts to bring his fist down, Marcel reaches up, not only blocking the hit, but catching the other guy's fist in his palm. And Marcel, he has this look in his eye. A fire that she's never seen all of the other times he's been beaten down, when he was just trying to make it by in the shadows. The cold and unwavering look in his eyes is terrifying on its own, just a touch away from completely feral.

 

Veronica's mouth unconsciously drops open dumbly, her pretty little eyes glued to Marcel's fist as it clenches around the other boy's knuckles. Percy howls in pain and tries to retract his arm, but Marcel holds him there, the ferocity in his eyes slowly dying out, until he finally throws the other boy's fist at his chest.

 

"Don't fucking touch me."

 

Percy is on his knees in the floor, clutching his hand to his chest, face clearly red from holding back his tears."Oh, I'm gonna do a lot more than just touch you when I get my boys," he manages to grit out. He's not quite in a position to be making threats though, and he knows it, flinching when Marcel steps to get around him.

 

Veronica can't help but stare dreamily at Marcel as he stalks past her group of friends with a cold stare in her direction. She doesn't miss the tiny quirk on the edge of his lip though, causing her to break out in a huge smile as she turns back to Percy who is being helped up by Harry.

 

"Wow," Veronica antagonises, unable to wipe the grin off her face. "You just got your ass beat because he squeezed your precious little fingers too tight? At least, Marcel could take a fucking hit," she cackles, the rest of her friends following suit.

 

"Why don't you suck my fucking dick?"

 

"Been there, done that. You cried then, too." She makes sure to swoop down and grab his glasses on her way past Percy and Harry. Harry can fucking choke. She was really about to sit there and watch some guy fuck up her brother— her _twin_ — without a word of protest. Then, she helps the asshole in the end?

 

"Where do you think you're going?" Harry calls out after her friends in such a tone that it implies her question was rhetorical. "Help me."

 

"We're not helping him," Nicole scoffs, crossing her arms.

 

"Lou," Harry growls next, glaring over at the girl in question.

 

Louise gives Harry a longing look, probably searching for a sign of the genuinely okay person that Harry used to be. She looks conflicted; She is and has always been Harry's very best friend. Or rather her very favorite pet. Her eyes harden when Harry barks her name as if she's commanding a dog. Lou doesn't say anything, just turns away with a determined look on her face and loops her arm with Veronica.

 

The five girls walk away from Harry and Percy without looking back.

 

[][][][]

 

The game is boring and cold, the only interesting parts being the half-time performances and the overpriced nachos. Veronica loves nachos from the school games because she always seduces the guy at the concession stand into giving her extra cheese.

 

Also Veronica is very pleased that their school looses by a mile because Percy's hand was fractured. Nobody knows how it happened because he refuses to tell anyone, but the coach, and his team mates, and the entire fucking town are mad at him, and she's _living_  for it.

 

She has even more fun at Harry's afterparty, despite the awkward tension every time she encounters her sort-of friend. She's not necessarily drunk, just a little tipsy. She can't go overboard tonight since homecoming is tomorrow and she doesn't want to look or feel like utter shit.

 

Rack City is bumping in the background as Veronica dances her way up the stairs to the third floor of the house with two drinks. Marcel is sitting on one of the bean bags, fighting some disgusting monster on what seems to Veronica to be Bloodborne.

 

"Rack city bitch, rack rack city bitch," he mumbles under his breath causing Veronica to laugh to herself. He startles then, whipping around to look at her where she's standing. He rolls his eyes at her, prompting Veronica to jokingly start dancing to the song as she approaches him.

 

"You dance like a white person."

 

"Fuck you bitch," she laughs, not even asking if it's okay before she plops down on the beanbag beside him.

 

"Is that mine?" he asks, nodding toward the drink.

 

Veronica pulls back when he reaches for the drink, tipping the cup in her other hand back. "No, it's mine," she teases, letting him snatch the full cup from her not a second later.

 

He takes a drink before setting it on the carpet next to him, and going back to what he was doing. Veronica stares at the dark, swollen mark under his eye.

 

"What even happened?"

 

Marcel shrugs, but his cheeks have a slight tint to them. "Nothing. Percy was just talking smack again."

 

"Talking smack?"

 

"He came up to me all in a huff talking about how I'm gonna regret talking to his girl, then he said some other stuff, and I told him to shut up, then he decked me in the face, and you saw the rest."

 

"What was he saying?" Veronica asks, confused about what could actually get a reaction out of Marcel. Usually he just takes his beatings silently and carries himself to the nurse. Veronica feels shitty for having heard about this so many times and done nothing.

 

"Nothing," Marcel replies a bit too quickly. "It was all crap. Don't worry about it."

 

Veronica narrows her eyes at him, knowing he can feel her stare even when he's staring adamantly at the screen. "Marcel."

 

"It was nothing! He was just saying the same shit he always does."

 

"Same shit as in bragging about his penis or same shit as in telling everyone I'm a devil slut?"

 

"The, uh, second one."

 

"And you just had to defend my honour?" Veronica hides her smile behind her cup as she takes another sip of the rum and koolaid.

 

"I couldn't just let him– leave me alone," he huffs with a blush.

 

"Aw! Are we friends now?" she squeaks, smiling so hard she can barely contain it. She leans over in his face, breathing alcohol in his face as she continues all silly. "Are we?"

 

"I guess."

 

Veronica does a mini victory dance in her head, once again shielding her grin with the red solo cup. “So friend, we never got to talk about that thing at Amberleigh’s house...”

 

“It’s nothing.”

 

The nervous look on his face says otherwise as he screws up and his character dies. He glares at her before sighing, knowing that if he doesn’t tell her now she’ll just pester him until he does. Smart boy. “Uh, it was weird that I had to meet her family.”

 

Veronica cocks her head in confusion. “I thought it was normal to meet the family on the first date?”

 

“Yeah, but not for the first date to _be_  meeting the family. Then on top of that her dad really didn’t like me, and kept asking her why she thought she could choose a better husband than he could, at which point I called you and got the hell out of there.”

 

Veronica is biting her her lip, brown eyes glazed over with moisture as she holds back her laughter. Marcel looks over at her and huffs. “It’s not funny.”

 

“You’re right,” she whispers in a strained voice, trying her hardest to keep her signs of amusement at bay.

 

“Veronica.”

 

“You wanna know what is funny?” Veronica asks in a weird high pitched tone, abs aching from holding back.

 

“What.”

 

“You almost dated a fundamentalist!” Veronica howls with laughter then, falling out of the bean bag chair. She holds her drink up for Marcel to take as she wheezes on the floor, sound not even coming out from how hard she’s laughing.

 

“A what?” Marcel asks in confusion, taking the cup nonetheless.

 

“A MORMON!”

 

“What’s wrong with that?”

 

Veronica can’t reply for a solid three minutes, just laughing her ass off.

 

“Veronica,” Marcel says voice laced with disapproval as he lectures her, “Out of everyone, I’d expect you to understand what it’s like to be judged for your religion...”

 

She could pass out by the time she gets a grip, not having heard most of his little speech because of the blood rushing in her ears. “Firstly, I don’t even practise. My dad’s side of the family does. Secondly, Amber’s not _just_  a Mormon. She’s the crazy ass kind with the sister wives and the doomsday prep. And you were almost a part of that! How did you not know?!” she crows, laughter overcoming her again. “There was like a billion women there.”

 

“There were four, and she said three of them were her aunts,” Marcel defends.

 

“Her ‘aunts’.” Veronica does finger quotes, flipping him off afterwards as she falls backwards laughing again.

 

“Shut up. See if I ever defend you again, asshole.” He goes back to playing his game while Veronica continues to laugh at his expense.

 

[][][][]

 

The next evening, Liam and Veronica are in her room getting ready for the dance. The girls were all supposed to get ready together at Harry's, but since Harry decided to show her ass yesterday, Nicole and Louise decided to get ready at Eleanor's instead. But Veronica doesn't like Eleanor's parents, so she's at hers with Liam. They give her weird looks when she goes in their house.

 

Veronica makes a face at herself in the mirror of her vanity as she thinks of this. After she gets on this eyelash, all she has left to put on is her lipgloss and shoes, then she's ready to go. Liam is re-doing a few of her curls that had fallen out. Much to Veronica's displeasure, she's going with Zayn as her date under the guise that he's chaperoning them.

 

Their mom would flip her shit if she knew Zayn was getting it in with a fifteen year old. _He_  would flip _his_  shit if he knew he was getting it in with a fifteen year old.

 

"I'm ready!" Liam yells, prancing back into the room in her [silky pearl dress](https://68.media.tumblr.com/8db99af39e06cf6ebb6586d13a13229c/tumblr_ox98noWC9p1tx6jlho1_400.jpg). There is no lack of cleavage and thigh, yet Liam still manages to look classy. She stops in her tracks when she sees Veronica, smile slowly fading.

 

"Is something wrong? Do I look bad?" Veronica panics, her worst case scenario of finding out her dress is ugly minutes before homecoming beginning to play out.

 

"Uh, no, Vee. You look great." Her eyebrows are still furrowed though, sending red alerts throughout Veronica's brain.

 

She knew that the long, [sparkly red dress](https://68.media.tumblr.com/a35b5ea3d23dc281f9a2dd9289618d3f/tumblr_ox98noWC9p1tx6jlho2_1280.jpg) had been a little overkill, but she wanted it. Honestly, when has Veronica _not_  overdressed?

 

"Then what's the problem?"

 

"You're going to look miles better than anyone there. Like what if Zayn sees you and then thinks I don't look good enough?"

 

"What the fuck, Liam?" Veronica says, horrified, disgusted, repulsed. "He's my _brother_. I swear to god Liam if you ever bring that hillbilly shit into my house again. Just–" Veronica makes a fake retching noise, turning back to her vanity to swipe on some 'plumping' lipgloss over her bare lips. It doesn't really plump her lips; she just likes the sting.

 

She trudges back over to her bed through the mountain of shoes she'd pulled out of her closet. She had to find just the right shade of rich, velvety red to match her dress. She sits there and fastens the six inch stilettos on, and stands up, her dress now properly fitting her. The couple extra inches really help.

 

"You look like a limited edition Barbie. I hate you."

 

Veronica just rolls her eyes and grabs Liam's hand, pulling her out of the room. Liam is only marginally better at walking in heels now, so she stumbles a little.

 

They don't have to do the cliche stairs descent moment because Zayn, their ride, is nowhere to be seen. Liam sets off into the kitchen, big, golden-tinted curls bouncing with her every step. There is absolutely no reason for Liam to be insecure with the way her ass and tan legs look in that dress from the back.

 

Veronica sighs, following Liam into the kitchen where she finds Zayn and Ed staring wide-eyed at Liam. Why is he even here? Zayn couldn't handle watching two teenage girls alone for four hours?

 

"Fucking hell," Ed curses when he finally peels his eyes off Liam long enough to get a glance at Veronica. And yeah, Veronica loves having her ego stroked, but she won't be trying anything with him ever again.

 

"You can't wear that," Zayn says sternly, causing Veronica to laugh. He's clearly not pleased by her response.

 

"I'll wear whatever I very well want. Let's go." With that, she turns around and struts out of the house, waiting by the door of Zayn's surprisingly clean mom car. Ed's trash ass pickup truck is parked haphazardly on the curb.

 

It feels like ages before everyone joins her, all of them piling into the tiny car.

 

"So who's your date?" Ed asks with a smirk, turning around in his seat to ogle Veronica more. She has no idea why her brother lets Ed act like this with her, but the second she reciprocates it, he freaks out.

 

"Don't have one."

 

"I could—"

 

"No, you can't," Zayn and Veronica reply simultaneously.

 

"What about Niall? He didn't ask you?" Liam's concern is a lot more genuine than Ed's.

 

"Nah, he asked some girl named Jade."

 

"Percy?"

 

"Nope. Don't know, don't care."

 

"Nick?"

 

"Girlfriend."

 

"Oh yeah. Not even the Star Wars and chess nerds?" Liam asks with wide brown eyes, not believing that not a single person asked Veronica to homecoming.

 

"No one asked me," Veronica smiles at Liam, a little sadly, but she's trying to remain positive. It's not like she needs a date anyway... Right?

 

Zayn drops the girls off at the door of the gym, driving around the building to find a parking spot. They flash their tickets and go inside, none too impressed with the lazy streamers and hundreds of balloons. The decorators were probably discouraged by the way their team got its ass beat on Friday. The colourful strobe lights at least help with the atmosphere.

 

Liam instantly spots Eleanor and Dylan and Louise and some dude sitting at a table. Louise looks none too interested in her date, the brown haired boy casting lovesick glances at her back every few seconds.

 

"Wow, you guys look great!" Eleanor cheers, Dylan giving the two girls an appreciative once over before nodding his head in agreement. Eleanor is in a [navy blue dress](https://68.media.tumblr.com/62d03d06b3cd57510814a0990d7385bd/tumblr_ox98noWC9p1tx6jlho4_1280.jpg) with lace detailing at the top. She looks prim and proper as always. Louise on the other hand, is in a [fluffy maroon hi-low dress](https://68.media.tumblr.com/ea8fd4d75cb6741d9d20693d74247218/tumblr_ox98noWC9p1tx6jlho3_1280.jpg). Her wispy hair is pulled up into a bun, so she can't hide her scowl behind her hair like she usually would.

 

"Where's Nicole?" Veronica asks, looking over all the bobbing heads in the crowd.

 

"Last second date hunting."

 

"She doesn't have a date?" Veronica says more enthusiastically than she should have if the weird looks everyone gives her are anything to go by.

 

"I _will_ ," Nicole smirks haughtily, strutting up to the table in her [shiny silk gown](https://68.media.tumblr.com/99d8ca3de89abccbf8ba92e196b12553/tumblr_ox98noWC9p1tx6jlho5_1280.jpg), the material almost blindingly white. If she had any cleavage to show off, the top of her dress would be obscene.

 

Louise goes to say something probably snarky but she quickly goes quiet. Her grey blue eyes are wide like tiny moons, staring at something behind Veronica. Veronica is disappointed to find that it's just her brother and Ed. Liam steps over to Zayn and possessively loops her arm through his, all of the girls releasing gentle sighs of disappointment.

 

"Hello, ladies," Ed smirks, doing a very obvious sweep of their breasts with his eyes. Veronica can't believe she was desperate enough to kiss that.

 

A flirtatious look comes over Nicole's face as she slinks over to Ed, and now that Veronica thinks about it, they'd make a great couple. They're both annoying as fuck, lewd, and overall disgusting. A perfect match.

 

Veronica would be a bit more relieved that Ed won't be creeping on her all night if it wasn't for the fact that she's now the only person in the group without a date. Not wanting to be the odd person out, Veronica excuses herself to go get a drink. There's a table with cans of soda, bottles of water, and at the very end there's a punch bowl, which Veronica makes a beeline for.

 

She pours herself a cup then steps to the side to let other people through.

 

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you," a voice says behind her, startling her.

 

She quickly turns around, her heart beginning to thump violently when Marcel comes into view. He has a purple bruise under his eye, but it only serves to make him that much more attractive. He's in a seashell white dress shirt with a black tuxedo vest overtop and a black bow tie. It's not far off from what he usually wears, but for some reason it makes her feel like her heart is exploding into a million sparkly pieces.

 

"Oh hi," she says lamely, shuffling closer to where he's sitting, under the pretence that she's trying to get far enough from the drink table that people stop stepping on her dress train. Really, she just wants to see if he smells any different, and he does. Mixed with his own scent, the cologne he's wearing tonight is a little peppery, like an old rich white man, and it shamefully turns her on.

 

"Someone might see you talking to me."

 

"And?" she smirks, trying to come off coolly, but she knows she just looks soft and pathetic.

 

Her response seems to please him, a small but genuine smile playing on his lips. "You look really nice tonight from what I can see."

 

She releases a little 'oh' then digs in her tiny formal purse. Her hand resurfaces a second later with his glasses, handing them over. Now that he can properly see, Veronica gives him a little twirl so he can properly appreciate the whole ensemble, well aware of the way that the slinky red material highlights her slight curves.

 

His eyes are still locked on her body when she comes back around, causing her to release a little laugh. He's saved from having to formulate an answer when a woman in a black pants suit with her black hair clipped up comes over. Veronica quickly recognises her as Harry's mother.

 

"Darling, have you seen your sister?"

 

Marcel just gives his mom a blank look because why would he ever know where Harry is. She actively avoids him, and vice versa.

 

"Okay, smart ass, I get it," the woman laughs, then turning to Veronica, her face lighting up in recognition then scrunching up in confusion. "Veronica? What are you doing over here? Where are the rest of the girls?"

 

Veronica shrugs a little, tucking a piece of her soft black hair behind her ear nervously. "Um, I don't know. I was just talking to Marcel." She bites her lip, the cocoa flavour of her lipgloss invading her mouth.

 

"Oh," Harry's mom smirks with a knowing look, giving Marcel a not-so-discreet nudge that sends red flames across his cheeks. "I'll just go this way then and leave you two to it." She winks at Marcel with an excited grin before backing away and scurrying in the other direction.

 

"Jesus Christ," Marcel moans to himself, embarrassed.

 

"So," Veronica mumbles, feeling a bit bashful after that.

 

"So... I think I'm about two seconds from ditching and heading to the computer lab. I was here. I socialised, right?"

 

"Would you be terribly disappointed if I tagged along?"

 

Marcel cocks his head as he stands up, straightening his vest. "Why would you want to do that? Don't you have friends to get back to?"

 

"Friends who are busy trying to get fucked."

 

"And that's different from what you're doing right now?"

 

Veronica bursts out laughing, punching Marcel in the shoulder. "Shut up, asshole."

 

There's sort of an unspoken agreement as Veronica follows Marcel out of the gymnasium and down the long sidewalk that leads back to the main building. Veronica is struggling a bit with the wind blowing her skirt into her heels. As heavy as the dress is, the wind still manages to pick it up and whip it under her shoe every other step.

 

"Come on then," Marcel sighs, stopping. When Veronica just looks at him quizzically, he holds his arms out to her.

 

Veronica nearly passes out when she figures it out, allowing him to scoop her up into his arms and carry her the rest of the way to the building. She doesn't know why boys try to carry her all the time, but she sure fucking loves it. She'll have to add it to her list of _things_.

 

"Yes, carry me, slave boy," she giggles into his ear once they're almost there, letting out a full snort when he stops suddenly.

 

"I'll drop you. I swear to god."

 

"You wouldn't dare!" she squeals, actually a little scared.

 

"You wanna bet?" he challenges, picking up his pace once again until they're at the door. He sets her back on her feet, and pulls at the door handle, relieved when it opens.

 

“Hoes first,” he says, holding the door open. He winces and coughs when Veronica pops him in the Adam’s apple on her way past him.

 

“It’s creepy in here,” she whispers for no reason as they tread through the barely lit hallways.

 

“I think it’s serene.”

 

“Good for you,” she replies a little snarky, scooting in close to him, hand grabbing onto his arm. She’d like to say she’s enjoying the contact, but she’s already seeing things in the shadows, grey blobs morphing and moving, fire exit signs casting an eerie red glow on everything.

 

She runs into him, not having noticed he’s stopped in front of a door. It’s to the library. She apologises quietly, following him into the large room. He flips a light switch and the wall sconces come on, but he doesn’t bother with the overhead lights.

 

“That better?” Marcel asks sincerely, and Veronica’s shocked and a little embarrassed. She’d hoped he wouldn’t have noticed how scared she truly was.

 

“Yeah.” She lets go of his arm as it becomes awkward, walking in front of him through the towering bookcases. She picks a random one off, reading the cover. _The Search for Delicious_. It has a little mermaid and a boy on the cover. She’s instantly bored of it when she turns it over and reads the blurb. She stuffs it back into its place, and walks a few feet down.

 

“Books are for nerds,” Marcel mimics in a high pitched voice, apparently directly behind her if the way she jumps says anything. Veronica smiles dangerously because she _knows_  that’s not supposed to be her. She whips around finding him closer than expected. He’s not in her face, but he’s definitely riding the line between intimate and personal space. She’d have to take a step to reach his lips.

 

She shakes the thought out of her head, choosing instead to smile up at him. Her heels decrease the height difference between them only a little.

 

“They are... nerd.”

 

“Princess.”

 

Veronica’s smile turns dirty then, eyes narrowing. “Princess, huh? You better watch your mouth. Those are fucking words.”

 

“Trying to seduce me again?”

 

Marcel’s voice is mocking and unbothered, but the blush on his cheeks and his wide, black pupils tell her another story.

 

“Trying?” She steps forward into his space, running her fingers over his expensive silk bow tie and down the pearly line of buttons on his chest. “Do or do not,” she smirks, as she meets his eyes again. “There is no try.”

 

It’s really nothing special to know that quote, but she guesses Marcel is just surprised that _she_  knows it. But like, what better way to seduce a geek than by talking nerdy to him?

 

Marcel pulls her in by her back then, soft lips pressing against hers gently as her arms wrap around his neck. Their lips brush softly, Marcel releasing a low sound as Veronica bites his lower lip, taking this opportunity to lick into his mouth. A sweet and minty flavor invades her tongue as the chocolaty taste of her lipgloss combines with the spearmint of his gum. His hand slides lower then, feeling of her ass through the slinky material of her dress.

 

They stay like that for a long time, the kiss remaining fairly tame when compared to the last kiss they shared. His hands do get a little frisky though, lightly kneading her ass and pulling her hips up into his, bodies flush.

 

He’s rocking a semi by the time the fluorescent lights overhead buzz on, Veronica and Marcel breaking apart as they quickly try to fix themselves. Luckily, he hadn’t touched her hair, so all she has to do is wipe off the small bit of smudged clear lipgloss.

 

He has to wipe the lipgloss off as well, Veronica giggling quietly as she turns around and pretends to be perusing the shelves. Just in time too, as Mr. Mendez rounds the corner.

 

“Veronica? Marcel? What are you two doing in here?” he asks suspiciously.

 

“Oh just looking for a book. I needed help.”

 

He nods, seeming torn between believing her and calling her on her bullshit. In the end, he just walks them back to the gym.

 

“I’m gonna go find my mom,” he says before they enter the double doors, and Veronica nods. It’s probably best that they aren’t seen being escorted back into the dance by the security guard. He goes in a little before her, Veronica standing around and smiling awkwardly at the burly man guarding the door.

 

“Are you alright?” he asks after a couple of seconds of side glances from Veronica.

 

“Yep. Just waiting to go back in. Can’t be seen with him.”

 

The man rolls his eyes, pointing his thumb at the door behind him. “Get back in. You can’t stand around the door. Fire hazard.”

 

Veronica sends him a little glare as she pulls the door open and re-enters the dance. She takes a moment to observe, noticing Nicole and Ed raiding the snack table. She can’t find Eleanor and Dylan, but she does spot Liam grinding on her brother on the dance floor. None of the parent chaperones or teachers care, turning a blind eye to all the horny little teenagers fucking it out through their clothes to the soothing sounds of Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz.

 

Veronica finds herself at the table with Louise and her date who introduces himself as Daniel before Louise tells him to shut up.

 

“No date?”

 

Veronica looks up to the voice, rolling her eyes as Harry and Cameron come into sight. “Of course not,” she answers coolly.

 

“Hi, Veronica,” the British boy behind Harry smiles, breaking the tension with an adorable little wave. His blonde hair is slicked back, the sharp features of his face appearing softer in the dim light.

 

“Hey, Cam.”

 

“My buddy Vince doesn’t have a date. I can hook you two up.”

 

Veronica waves his offer off, not in the mood for any other boys as a phantom tingle dances on her lips. It’s probably just the lip gloss.

 

“Look, V. All the other girls have made up with me.”

 

Veronica looks off into the distance, bored. “I’m not apologising if that’s what you want. Percy’s been talking shit about me for the better part of this year, and I think it was really fucking shitty of you to defend him.”

 

“Well I wasn’t going to defend Marcel.”

 

“Nobody expected you to.”

 

Harry grits her teeth, hand in a death grip on Cameron’s. “Fuck, fine. I’m...” A look overcomes Harry’s features, her lips trembling as if she’s going to be sick. “I’m...” Harry actually gags, her eyes clenched shut as if she’s physically in pain. “S.... or.... ry.”

 

“You’re what?” Veronica teases, grinning triumphantly.

 

“I’m-“ Harry gags again, shooting Veronica a glare. “I said it already! Fuck off!”

 

Veronica simpers contentedly, storing away the memory of Harry apologising so she’ll never forget it. “Alright. Your dress is nice.”

 

Harry gives a reluctant smile, her[ skin-tight black dress sparkling](https://68.media.tumblr.com/09daa89fde6e628e867588676265f3b4/tumblr_ox98noWC9p1tx6jlho6_1280.jpg). “Thanks.” Harry spins around on her toe, yanking Cameron behind her as she struts over to his group of friends.

 

**John Smith**

**You look satisfied**

 

Veronica bites her lip, eyes searching the room before finding Marcel at a table across the gym.

 

**Harry just apologized to me**

 

She watches Marcel’s eyes widen as he reads the text.

 

**John Smith**

**Whaaaaat???**

 

Veronica giggles to herself and replies to him. She spends the rest of the night texting back and forth. Even though she has to sit beside Ed and Nicole making out in the backseat on her way home, she can’t find in it in herself to be mad or even annoyed as Marcel calls her a pervert over text.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUCK THAT KISS SCENE WAS SO AWKWARD BUT THE CRINGE HAD TO HAPPEN OKAY
> 
> also this chapter is so long it now makes up 12% of the fic's word count


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to post. I’ve been worried bc this chapter gets heavy (not real in depth heavy), but it’s emotional.
> 
> Just a warning that it could be sad. I usually like to write happier shit but this had to be done

“You sing it then!” Liam angrily yells into the mic so loudly that Veronica can hear it reverberate in his headphones. She rips the door to the bathroom open a second later and stalks out.

Liam and Louise are recording their backup vocals first since it’s their song. Veronica and Niall had both agreed to let them take control once they got involved, and also to not include Harry in the back up since she’d be the majority of the live vocals. Also because Niall rather preferred not to have her in his house. (If Veronica had her way, Liam would be front and centre because she has the strongest vocals, but then they’d never get the song past Harry.) They decided on a backtrack because they haven’t quite learned how to harmonise live yet so a backing track will be the way to go.

Liam has sung this same part eight times, and every time Niall hasn’t been satisfied. He’s such a perfectionist that they’re literally going insane.

He doesn’t even seem surprised at her outburst, almost like he was trying to make her mad. “Fine, Veronica can do this part,” he smiles, way too eager to suggest her. He’s been foaming at the mouth to hear her sing for some reason. She’s not even that great.

Veronica rolls her eyes at him, sharing a deadpan look with Liam as she passes her into the dimly lit bathroom. “Ambiance” Niall had called it. She puts on the headphones and stands in front of the microphone.

Niall counts her off before the instrumental track starts playing softly in her ears. She sings the words off memory having looked at them so much, trying to remember to stay in the right key. She has a little trouble with that.

“Perfect!” Niall shouts as he busts in the door.

Veronica takes off the headset and gives him a look. “Was it really?”

“It was exceptional. Your voice was exactly what the song needed. Something in between Liam and Louise.”

“Yeah yeah yeah!” Louise bitches from where she’s lying on the sofa. “Get your head out of your dick, Horan! She was off key in like different four parts!”

Niall looks back to her and shrugs, in a silent admission that he was at least partially talking out of his ass. “But she can do it with a little guidance.”

“Guidance,” Liam snorts, putting a dirty connotation on the word.

“Shut up,” Veronica snips, throwing her ponytail over her shoulder. They’re going to finish this today, and if all of this tom foolery keeps them there until midnight, then so be it.

••••

Wednesday is.... weird. To begin with, Veronica finds a centipede in her bathroom when she’s doing her hair and nearly burns her foot when she drops her flat iron. To be fair, she’s never seen a wild centipede in her house before so it was kind of jarring.

Then, when she gets to school, Louise actually initiates a conversation with her by her locker.

Veronica’s barely half way through her centipede story when she realises Louise isn’t actually paying attention to her. Her eyes keep glancing over Veronica’s shoulder, so of course she goes to look.

“Don’t look!” Louise spits angrily in a whisper, jerking Veronica back to face her.

“Why? Don’t look at what?”

“Pretend like you’re talking to me.”

“I _am_  talking to you. Why are you acting all weird?” Veronica watches as Louise’s annoyed expression melts into panic.

“Don’t look! Don’t look! Don’t look! Shut the fuck up!” She suddenly ducks her head into Veronica’s locker, apparently very interested in the crumpled up lab reports and various candy wrappers.

She almost asks what’s going on before a dude in a hat passes by. He pauses mid stride, turning around to look Veronica up and down appreciatively, and _oh_. It’s not a boy. It’s a girl.

Her sky blue eyes hold a mischievous glint as she approaches them. “I don’t think we’ve met yet...” the girl trails off waiting for Veronica to fill in the blank.

“Veronica.”

“Well, hello, Veronica. I’m Stan.”

“Stan?” Veronica asks with a wrinkled nose as if her best friend isn’t named Liam.

“Constance, but everyone calls me Stan.”

Veronica turns to Louise to try to get out of this awkward conversation, but Louise is just gaping dreamily at the girl, which Veronica finds odd because she’s nothing like Eleanor. She’s the same height, but kind of pudgy and dressed in pair of baggy basketball shorts. She hides her messy brown hair under a baseball cap, playful eyes now staring right back at Louise. It’s like Veronica isn’t even there.

“And you?”

Seconds go by and Louise has yet to say anything so Veronica nudges her with her arm, earning a deathly glare from Louise.

“What do you want.”

“She’s waiting for your name.”

Louise blushes across her sharp cheekbones and petite nose, turning back to the girl, and Veronica’s not sure if Louise has always been a mouth breather, but her mouth has yet to close, slow almost wheezing breaths puffing out of her thin lips.

“Louise.”

“Mind if I call you Lou?”

Louise giggles dumbly, wringing her hands behind her back and shaking her head. On fucking god, Veronica has never seen Louise get like this. She’s practically glowing, like a tiny little bashful angel.

Veronica gets the hint that she’s irrelevant to this conversation, heading in the other direction. It’s sweet to see Louise so happy so she won’t ruin it for now by reminding everyone of the looming volcanic eruption that new girl is about to cause.

••••

Lunch is awkward as _hell_. Louise and Stan are huddled up at their own table instead of sitting with the girls. Stan holds Louise’s tiny hands in her own as she tells her a story, Louise never once breaking eye contact.

If Veronica thought Eleanor was gonna be mad, it’s nothing compared to Harry angrily stabbing around her bowl as she rants. “Who the fuck does that bitch even think she is? I _made_ her. She’s mine. That dyke can’t just swoop in and reap the benefits of all my hard work!”

“Wanna dial back the homophobia for like two seconds so everyone can enjoy their lunch?” Nicole jokes, although she doesn’t look too pleased to have to tell Harry to stop casually using slurs.

Harry ignores her, fisting the plastic fork as she desperately tries to puncture her last cherry tomato, but it just keeps rolling around her fork. Veronica would have picked it up and eaten with her hand by now, but Harry is all about appearances and being proper to the point that it just ends up looking ridiculous. Finally, she just throws herself out of her seat, stomping over to the nearest trashcan before screaming and kamehameha-ing the plastic bowl into the bin, tomato and all. She’s totally off her hinges.

“Is she okay?” Liam asks around a mouth full of salad. Veronica can’t help but be endeared as Liam has some ranch dripping down the corner of her lip. Veronica doesn’t even think about it, swiping her lip with her finger before popping it into her own mouth. Liam giggles causing Veronica to snort as well.

“Y’all got something you wanna tell us?”

“No?” Liam answers in confusion. Eleanor and Nicole are smirking at them with their stupid fucking pretty people faces.

“Nothing... interracial you wanna discuss?”

Eleanor dies laughing at this while Veronica connects the dots, scowling at her friends. Liam, on the other hand, is oblivious.

“I didn’t know there was a deal going on. Two Maliks for the price of one, you lucky bitch.”

Liam’s eyes widen in realisation, but instead of spluttering like Veronica anticipates (because that’s the way she always was until she started getting statutoried), she smirks. “Trust me, if we were lesbo, we would have fucked a long time ago.”

Veronica punches Liam as the brunette laughs. She’s such an annoying dick sometimes. Just as bad as the rest of them.

“I think Harry’s gay.”

Everyone gasps as Nicole smirks this out of nowhere, the lot waiting for her to elaborate. She has the most infuriating type of smug face that just makes you want to punch her every time she does it, which is always.

“Think about it. All her aggressive homophobia. Constantly trying to look at us naked. And don’t even get me started on how horny she is after cheer practise. I think she’s gay, and whoever she has a crush on is on the squad.”

“But she’s always fucking guys? We literally just stood watch on a park and pork for her.” Liam says with a poor, dumb look on her face. At least she’s pretty.

“Maybe she’s like bi or something, but there’s no way in hell she’s straight.”

“And you’re all the sudden a fagologist?” Eleanor snaps. She looks immediately regretful.

“As a _fag_ , myself, I’d have to say I’m more of a fagologist in training.”

Liam gasps with a huge smile. “You’re a fag?!” Veronica can’t help laugh at Liam for being oblivious and just repeating it.

“What flavour are you?” Veronica thinks that was a very weird way she worded her question but she can’t take it back now.

Nicole shrugs with an easy going smile. She seems more.... at ease. It’s a good look on her. “My flavour right now is still Ed, so we’ll see.”

Veronica gags. “I can’t believe you’re really banging him. He’s like kissing a slobbery dog.”

“And how would you know?”

All eyes are now on her as her face heats up. She was doing such a good job of keeping that under wraps. Surprisingly, Zayn didn’t want to advertise he’d walked in on his best friend with his tongue down his sister’s throat, Marcel didn’t have anyone to tell, and nobody ever believes shit Ed says, so the only person who could truly rat on Veronica was herself. And she flubbed it up.

“Have you been turning it out for Harry’s brother?”

_More like brothers._

Veronica actually feels sick thinking about Ed’s bumpy troll dick in her vagina. She’s never seen it, but it must be disgusting. “I’m not turning it out for anyone right now, especially not that walking venereal disease. We just made out for a whole two minutes. I consider it a low point in my life.”

“You bitch!” Liam gasps. “When?”

“I dunno. It was the week of Amberleigh’s bake sale. Just a little fyi,” Veronica says specifically to Nicole. “Ya boi has a major food kink.”

“He has a major everything kink. I watched him jerk off to a Buzzfeed video about how to pick a lock.”

“You _watch_ him jerk off?” Eleanor asks, her nose all scrunched up.

“Yeah? You guys don’t do that?”

“The only time I watch Zayn jerk off is when he’s cumming on my back.”

“FUCK OFF,” Veronica yells, covering her ears, but the damage has been done. The mental image is already seared into her brain, and she’s scarred for life. She never needed to know that about her brother or her best friend.

“Did you ever watch Percy jerk off?”

“Of course not. I spent a major portion of the last three years with his dick in my mouth. I don’t think he jerked off more than a couple times. I don’t think he _needed_ to.”

“So you’re like a sub?”

Veronica gives Liam a weird look.

“Like, Zayn told me that some people are doms and some people subs, so like subs are submissive or whatever. Apparently I’m a dom because I like to be on top and he likes to be pinn-“

Veronica doesn’t even respond. She just stands up and walks away. She only gets to the other side of the building before someone calls her name. She grimaces when she turns around to the figure that jogs up.

He runs a nervous hand through his curly hair, making it fro out. “Where have you been?”

“With my friends?”

“No, I mean like you stopped talking to me.”

“Probably because the last time I talked to you, your girlfriend walked away with a handful of my hair.”

Nick blushes, clearly embarrassed. He should be. He should be mortified. Nasty cheater. “Sorry about that. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime maybe not at school?”

Veronica steps away from him with a disgusted look. “Boy, what the fuck? You have a _g i r l f r i e n d_.” She says it nice and slow so maybe he’ll finally comprehend it.

“I’ll break up with her,” he pleads, actually dropping to his knees in front of her and grovelling like a big ol’ gaping pussy. “I wrote a song for you. You’re my inspiration. My muse. My Peitho. My Aphrodite.”

“Get away from me, you freak!” Veronica hollers appalled, thoroughly creeped out. Why does she always attract the obsessive and possessive. Why can’t she just have a normal boy interested in her for once?! Maybe she needs to switch perfumes because this one is attracting the crazies.

“I love you.”

“ _OH FUCK NO_.” Veronica turns around as fast as she can, heels springing off the tile as she runs away and directly into the arms of the other last person on Earth she’d want to see. What is up with today?

“Vee,” he smiles dopily, clearly stoned out of his mind on pain meds and probably something else too. He’s not gripping her forcefully like he normally would, casted hand resting gently on her lower back to keep her close. He looks so sweet like this, like the person she always wanted him to be. “You’re pretty.”

“You’re high,” Veronica replies, trying to remain indifferent despite the blood rushing to her cheeks. She knows what’s coming, but doesn’t stop it for some reason. She kind of just wants things to go back to the way they were last year. Her eyes close as he kisses her, ashy blonde bangs tickling her forehead. It feels so familiar, the rush of nostalgia blinding her other senses. She gasps into his mouth as his unbroken hand slides up the back of her skirt, groping her ass. Before she even knows it, she’s pulled into an empty classroom.

••••

She regrets it. She regrets it so bad. It’s not like they did anything, on account of him cumming in his pants before they _could_ , but it still feels like there’s a stone weighing down her gut. She drops her bag at her usual desk, dropping her face into her arms on the desk as soon as she sits down.

“Where did you go?” Liam asks from the seat beside her. “Eleanor said you weren’t in math last period.”

“I’m such a fucking idiot.” She doesn’t feel like crying. She’s past that point with the whole Percy ordeal. She just wants to punch herself until she fucking dies.

“What happened?”

Veronica sits up, looking around her. People are listening. They’re facing the front and writing the assignment down, but they’re all tuned in to her conversation. They always are. She just whips out her phone and shoots Liam a text.

Liam opens it a few seconds later, eyes bugging. “You did _what_?!” she whisper yells, brown eyes looking at her like she’s crazy. Fuck, she might be.

**Lerm  
Jfc hav sum self respect**

Veronica reads the text and glares at Liam who just throws her hands up as if to say ‘what did you expect’.

**Be nice to me**

 

**Lerm  
Clearly thats not working. Get ur hed outta ur ass. Ur too hot 4 him**

Veronica shuts her phone off and puts it in her bag. Texting Liam is just making her angry right now. Liam doesn’t seem to understand where Veronica’s coming from. How could she? Her relationship with Daniel ended because he went to college and she “wasn’t feeling” the distance after about a month. Her relationship ended on _her_ terms, and the worst she had to go through was him passive aggressively liking shady posts on Instagram.

Daniel didn’t suddenly leave her because she wasn’t enough for him. He didn’t spread rumours about her or hook up with other girls right in front of her to prove a point. Liam never had with Daniel what Veronica had with Percy.

She doesn’t know what it feels like to be with someone who loves no one.

But Veronica can’t entirely blame Liam for her lack of sympathy when she doesn’t even know a quarter of the things that Percy’s done to her. She doesn’t want to tell Liam. She doesn’t want to tell anyone.

To an outsider, Percy was just a shitty, inattentive, demanding boyfriend. And, yeah, he was those things, but he was so much more. He was charming and sweet and protective and spiteful and possessive and manipulative. He’d call her his everything and threaten to leave her in the same breath. He’d ignore her at school all day then walk her home after practise like nothing happened. She was constantly trying to keep up with what he wanted while simultaneously apologising for things she didn’t even know she did.

Veronica’s tired of people saying she’s stupid for letting him treat her like that. That’s why she doesn’t want to tell anyone. Because they want to print off a checklist of warning signs for something that was impossible for her to see coming. It was easy for things to escalate to the degree they did because it didn’t happen overnight. By the time another one of his demons reared its ugly head, she’d already gotten used to living with the ones that were already there. She always knew something was wrong. She just never thought it was bad enough to do something about.

That’s why it turned her world upside down when he left her. He was a habit. Like nail biting. Most nail biters know the reasons not to do it, but a lot of them don’t make a conscious effort to quit. For three years, she was absentmindedly biting her nails, and then one night her hand was suddenly pulled away from her mouth and she could see the full extent of the damage. Not a torn cuticle or a stinging quick; exposed nailbeds, raw and vulnerable nerve endings with no protection. The pain makes her desperate, makes her want to put her fingers back inside the warm mouth to suck until they’re numb again.

It’s really dramatic to put it that way, but she can’t help it. Growing nails back is a slow process and she’s only just started. Sometimes when something brushes the sensitive nerves, she’d rather just stick her fingers back in her mouth than hurt.

It doesn’t hurt when he’s calling her a slut like some junior high ‘nice guy’ who didn’t get nudes after messaging her that’s she’s pretty. It hurts when he gets all romantic with her out of nowhere like handing a dollar to a homeless person and saying “there’s more where that came from”. It’s easier to fight him when he’s fighting her.

But today he was so soft and sweet it would have felt like kicking a kitten to push him away. Then, he ejaculated prematurely and said she must have practised with a lot of guys since him and that’s why he didn’t last. Not because he came to school on a half dose of oxycodone and a full dose of marijuana.

Veronica just sighs deeply and sinks down in her chair. She resolutely does not talk to Liam for the rest of the class.

It’s not until much later in the day that it hits her, and what better place to have an oh-shit moment than in the middle of the hallway when a boy in glasses is putting up a poster for the book fair next week. Her heart constricts as her eyes widen before her brain catches up to her and tells her to quit staring at him. Veronica holds her book tightly to her chest as she walks the other way. She feels so fucking low. She’s ruined everything. Why work so hard to get him just to throw it all away on thirty minutes of mediocre kissing with someone who doesn’t even fucking want her? They aren’t even together technically. He hasn’t even texted her all week, but none of those technicalities will matter when he finds out. She’d be optimistic about it, but even if no one saw them, Percy has the biggest fucking mouth on campus. He can’t just do something and feel satisfied. He needs to brag about it to feel validated. That’s how everyone found out the last time she had a lapse in judgement. No spies. No hearsay. They got the news straight from the source.

So now what? If she tells Marcel herself, he’ll probably just do that thing where he asks why he should care. Then, he’ll remind her that they’re not dating, and she’ll feel embarrassed. But if he hears it from someone else, he’ll know she chose to withhold the information. She resolves to talk to him as soon as she gets a free moment. She needs to see him in person so she can gauge whether he returns (a fraction) of her feelings or if he just had the punch at homecoming.

••••

"Hi, Daddy!" Veronica calls into her phone sweetly. Her fingers nervously pick at the nose of the cotton candy coloured teddy bear in in her arms.

"Hello, beta. What do you want?" his kind voice jokes into the phone. Her father has such a warm and inviting demeanour about him, very deceiving. He's great at joking around and making deals, but not so much at parenting. He can go from best pal mode to iron fist in seconds.

"Oh, nothing much. I just have this thing at school on May 8th, and I was just wondering if you could... come." Veronica bites her lip after she says the last word. He'll give her money and cars whenever she wants (at her mother’s discretion), but it takes a lot of convincing to get his time.

She instantly feels small at the sound of his deep sigh. "What is it?"

"Um, my friends and I are entering the talent show, and I was wondering if you could make it," she squeaks out timidly.

"May 8th? I'll tell Jess, and she'll let me know if I have time in my schedule. You should call earlier next time."

"I will," Veronica replies, unsure of whether she should feel happy or sad. At least he's considering it this time.

"I have a client coming in soon, so I have to go."

"Wait!" Veronica calls out to her own surprise. She feels the hot tendrils of shame creeping up her neck as she starts her next question. "I have another volleyball game on Thursday–"

"Veronica," her father says sternly, cutting her off. "I don't have the time." A muffled voice sounds in the background before he says a short goodbye and hangs up on her.

"Well, that went just as brilliantly as I’d hoped,” she sighs. He doesn’t have time to go to any of her games, but he sure has the time to go to Santorini with his new girlfriend every other week.

Veronica is well past the point of crying about it. She decided when they moved that if he didn’t have the time to spend with her, she didn’t have the tears to spend on him. Besides, she always did like her mother more.

•••••

Veronica doesn’t get a chance to breathe until Saturday. Unfortunately, it seems as though the more games the team wins, the harder Coach pushes them. They’ve never had a win streak like this, and the crazy bitch has been jilling herself to the thought of conquering regionals for as long as Veronica’s known her. So that means more practise and less everything else.

Veronica had asked to tag along with Zayn to the Styles’ to visit with Harry, but jokes on him she’s spending Saturday and part of Sunday four hours away at a cheer competition. She was gone yesterday by lunch.

She’s braces herself for the conversation she’s about to have with Marcel. Any way she plays through it, she doesn’t see it ending well.

They don’t go in through the front, Zayn leading her to the backyard gate and climbing over it. He undoes the latch and lets her in after him.

“Have fun. Try not to kiss anyone,” he says before jogging over to the shed and slipping inside.

Veronica rolls her eyes, before she takes a deep breath to prepare herself. The house is eerily quiet when she enters. It doesn’t sound like anyone’s home, but she knows he is. Where else would he have to be?

It’s so quiet that she actually jumps when the living room light flicks on. She goes to investigate, but Marcel meets her at the doorway. He doesn’t look too happy, then again he never looks _happy_  per se.

“Hi,” she says timidly, testing the waters. He just kind of stares at her, inspecting her face. She can’t bear the intensity of his eyes, so she looks down at her little white Keds.

“I asked for one thing, Veronica.” Her heart clenches when he says her name. It’s so full of disappointment. “I don’t do drama. I don’t want to be involved in some fucked up kind of love triangle or square or hexagon— I don’t know— however many people you’re involved with. To be honest, I didn’t even really want to be your friend. For this exact reason. I don’t want to have to stand here and listen to your apologies every other week for things that are easily avoidable.”

Veronica sighs softly as the heavy feeling in her chest grows. “I know.”

“Then why are you doing this? Why don’t you just leave me alone?”

Veronica just shrugs, voice just barely above a whisper as she replies. “I don’t know.” Her throat is closing up, and she’s really not too fond of crying in front of him again. She doesn’t want him to think she’s doing it for his pity. She doesn’t want him to know she’s well and truly attached to him, so when he breaks off whatever they have, she won’t look like the weak one again. She’s always the weak one.

“Of course you don’t. You never do. You don’t {think},” his scarily calm voice quickly becomes irate. “You never think. You just do whatever suits you in the moment.”

“It’s not-“ Her own shaky breath cuts off whatever she was going to say. The tears begin to gather on the cusp of her lashes, blurring her vision. Her head throbs from the effort of trying and failing to keep herself from crying.

Marcel just barrels on, seemingly aggravated by the tears that involuntarily drop down her cheeks. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. This is why we can’t be friends.”

"Don't you like me?"  
  
"Oh, I like you. I like you a lot. But it's some of the _shit_ you do that reminds me why no one else does."

He doesn’t stick around to hear her break down, disappearing up the stairs before she even has time to react to his words.

Somehow, she finds her way to the downstairs bathroom before the first sob forces its way out of her throat. She slowly builds a mini-mountain of mascara covered tissues on the floor next to her as she wallows in regret. Crying like this doesn’t feel like releasing pent up negative energy. It feels like punishment. She’s not sure how long it takes until her silent cries turn to exhausted hiccups.

••••

Veronica pulls open the shed, cringing when a puff of smoke billows out at her. The smell is awful.

“Close the fucking door!” Ed yells, so she steps into the little building, closing it behind her. There’s a towel pushed against the bottom of the door that she packs back against the crack with her heel. Ed and her brother are spread out on a blanket on the ground. There’s only one dim light bulb in here, which Veronica is thankful for. She’d tried cleaning the tear tracks off her face, but she ended up having to take all of her makeup off. Nobody deserves to see her barefaced.

“What are you doing in here?”

“I want to go home.”

Zayn rolls his lidded eyes, making no sign of moving. “Lemme finish this off then we’ll go.”

Veronica huffs, not really in the mood for being at this house any longer. She walks over to her brother and snatches the joint, putting it between her lips before inhaling deeply. It only burns off around a quarter of what’s left, so she takes it with her as she walks back to the door. When she turns around Ed and her brother are staring at her dumbly like she couldn’t have possibly just done that in real life. Veronica finally exhales the smoke, waving the joint in the air to taunt Zayn as she exits the shed.

She immediately takes another drag, walking backwards through the yard so she can watch Zayn struggle to catch up with her. Whatever he’s on... it’s not weed. He looks about half as fucked up as she wants to get. This half finished joint is not gonna do that for her, so she loops around suddenly, actually laughing at the way Zayn stumbles as she walks right past him and back into the shed. She shuts the door without locking it, just to slow him down.

“What the fuck?” Ed laughs as Veronica drops her ass onto one of the pillows they have spread out. It occurs to her that she’s never smoked in front of anyone except for Percy, so yeah people are going to be confused. She only smokes a couple times a year as she needs to be coherent for volleyball and school and Harry’s not a big fan of recreational drug use.

“It’s his fault for not taking me home.”

“Z’s about to trip balls. He can’t even _walk_.”

Veronica angrily inhales another cloud of smoke because of course her brother is too high to drive when she needs him. Her vision is starting to separate a little, like her eyes can’t focus, and everything is moving just slightly enough that it’s disorienting.

“You tryna fuck?” Ed says after a while of them sitting in silence. Zayn isn’t back yet, which Veronica should be concerned but she’s pissed at Zayn. She’ll check on him in a minute.

“You are not the Styles I am looking for,” she replies, waving her hand all spacey before snorting at her own joke. She’s such a loser, and it’s hilarious to her.

“Then why aren’t you with him?”

“He doesn’t want me.”

Ed scoffs, taking a hit off his own blunt before replying. “He’s such a fucking idiot.” He’s staring up at the ceiling, not really talking to her. Veronica looks up as well, noticing an intricate mandala painted on the flat roof. Zayn must have done that. Her train of thought wanders off as she stares up at the ceiling, the rows of suns and moons and stars shifting in different directions like gears in a clock. The centre is one of those half moon half sun things that she loves. She’s definitely high as shit, she realises, as they seem to breathe, melting into each other’s embrace.

She doesn’t know what time it is when she wakes up. It’s definitely dark outside, but instead of being in the shed she’s curled up Ed’s bed. Her brother and Ed are cuddled up on the floor sound asleep. They look like little angels.... or gay lovers.

Veronica is surrounded by empty bags of chips and boxes of cereal and about a ton of candy. She remembers how she got up here, then. They found Zayn lying by the edge of the pool and staring at his own reflection, which she remembers laughing so hard she cried because he _would_. She and Ed took him upstairs, then they went back down and raided the kitchen, smoked a bowl each in the bathroom, and ate again while watching YouTube. They must have passed out sometime after that.

Veronica sighs in relief as she doesn’t remember doing anything slutty or encountering the other Styles sibling, which is a miracle. God forbid she’d run into their _mom_.

Veronica rolls over and grabs a handful of Cheerios, stuffing them all into her mouth. She must still be a little high. It’s only eleven at night. She takes a pillow as she gets off the bed and tip toes over to her brother, throwing it down beside him. She lies down next to them and cuddles up to Zayn’s bony little back before drifting back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi sorry about that. It only gets better from here I’m pretty sure. The next couple chapters are safe I think. 
> 
> But for real, the next chapter is cute and I’m READY
> 
> Ps. I’ve started posting ziam side oneshots from this universe if you wanted that


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took literal months I’m trash

It’s finally the day. It’s finally time to show Harry the song for the first time and begin choreography. Veronica would be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous. She really tries not to show it.

Liam throws an arm over her shoulder as they wait for Harry to actually show up. She’s fifteen minutes late when she prances into the room in full pink workout gear. The skin-tight polyester really shows off her stick-slim figure.

“Finally,” Niall mutters, paying no mind to Harry’s glare. Veronica has learned he’s not very fond of her, or Nicole and Eleanor. He seems to only like her and Liam. And Louise for some reason even though she’s the antichrist. When she’s not being the devil incarnate, he seems to think she’s hilarious.

They wait for Harry to put her stuff down and impatiently wave for them to show her what they’re here for before Liam hits play on the room’s speaker. They only get a few seconds into the song before Harry decides she has something to say.

"I knew you'd fuck this up," Harry laughs meanly, causing Veronica to angrily rip her phone off the auxiliary cord.

"We fucking worked on that for weeks," Louise growls before withering under Harry's scathing look.

"So did the guy on the internet I payed $200, and he actually made something palatable." She snatches the cord out of Veronica's hand.

Veronica thinks there's actual steam coming out of her ears, there has to be. Harry had the fucking _audacity_ to not only go behind their backs and get a different song made, but she also has the nerve to stand there in front of them and insult their hard work. And now she's going to play her bullshit track for them without even listening to their whole song.

"This is the song we're choreographing and performing." Harry goes over to her bag and pulls out a couple sheets of stark white paper. She hands one to everyone, including Niall who has this look on his face like she's never seen before. He's glaring at Harry like he could kill her, like his hand is going to jet out at any second and grab her by the throat. Lowkey, that would be hot.

Harry pushes play, and starts singing, Veronica examining the notes as she does so. There's one immediate issue she has with the lyrics. She's had enough of Harry's shit, yanking the cord to the speakers out of the wall.

"We're not performing this."

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Harry barks at her.

"We're a six piece band, not your fucking backup singers. Perform your shitty little song if you want. I'm out." Veronica crumbles up the lyrics sheet and chucks it at Harry before grabbing her gym bag and storming out of the studio. She's never actually talked to Harry like that. Everything she said was meant specifically for Harry rather than Harry getting mad about something she said to someone else. She feels... powerful. It feels good.

Someone grabs her arm in the parking lot before she can reach her car, Veronica whipping around entirely ready to kick Harry in the vagina so hard her queef turns into a burp. Her heart settles when she sees Niall's blue eyes, falling into his arms instantly. He rubs her back soothingly as she mumbles curses into his chest.

"I'm sorry, darlin. We should have just done her song."

"No!" Veronica growls, pulling back to look up at him. "She would've hated it no matter what. She just wanted to keep us distracted long enough for her to work something else out."

His arms tighten around her back again, pulling her back into his chest.

"I just wish we could still perform it. You all worked so hard."

Veronica's ears perk, eyebrow raising as a devilish smile slowly spreads across her face. "It's a shame. I'm so upset I might have to go home and create a group chat without Harry."

"Um, okay?"

"And in that group chat, I might have to message everyone a time and place. And at that time and place, we might have to start rehearsing our song."

"You sneaky little shit."

Veronica laughs, stepping out of Niall's grasp, _again_. He’s really taking advantage of that fact that she hugged him first. It’s kind of cute. In a really sad, desperate way.

••••

“Welcome to la casa de mía,” Veronica announces as she dumps her keys in the bowl by the door. After deciding she’d rather not be alone following the eventful afternoon she’d had, Veronica made the split second decision to kidnap Niall to make him watch Hulu and do sheet masks.

Niall whistles, taking in the high ceiling of the living room, the sound echoing. “Nice. Your house is very.... white and brown. Like you.”

Niall’s grin splits his face as Veronica shoots him a deadpan look. He’s not wrong. Her mom has this weird white and tan aesthetic going on. Their living room looks like one of those Cow Tales candies. It has a sort of modern western vibe with cow hides and artsy polished horseshoe decorations. A mess, in Veronica’s opinion but her mom won’t hear a word of it.

“Jokes on you,” Veronica smiles evilly, walking backwards into her kitchen. “I have a very fun girls night planned for us.”

Niall’s face blanches as he now realises what he’s allowed himself to get roped into.

“Step one, I want you to make tea for us so we can steam our faces over the boiling water and also because I’m thirsty.”

“Why do I have to make the tea?”

“Because you’re British right?” Veronica says dumbly, cocking her head to the side like an airhead.

“Don’t you ever-“ Niall threatens playfully, puffing up and bumping his chest into hers, “-say that again, you dirty American... the audacity,” he mutters to himself as he pushes past her and starts opening all the cabinets because he has no idea where anything is.

“Cups are up top by the stove. Tea is in those canisters on the counter underneath it.”

“ _Stove_ ,” Niall mocks, before setting to work, the pan heating on one of the electric burners.

Veronica bounces up behind him once it comes to a boil, sticking her face directly into the steam.

“Your makeup is going to melt.”

“Shit!” Veronica curses, thanking him before running upstairs. She fights with herself for a moment before deciding she doesn’t care if he sees her without makeup because it’s just _Niall_. She’s not trying to impress him or anything. While she’s upstairs, she changes into a oversized rust coloured sweater and leggings.

She also grabs the sheet masks. He’s going to be a rose scented piglet and like it. When she gets down, she’s surprised to see Niall’s face glowing red as he holds it over the steam. She clears her throat.

“Don’t judge me. It feels good.”

“Okay, but I think you’re roasting so come over here and I’ll put a mask on you.”

He glances up at her lazily, doing a double take with a shocked expression.

“What?”

“That’s what you look like?” he says before he can stop himself.

“Yes,” Veronica growls before he starts backtracking.

“No, it’s not a bad thing. I just didn’t expect you to look like so much like Zayn. It’s weird. Not a bad weird. Good weird. I’m not gay, but Zayn’s fit as far as lads go, so obviously you’re not busted. I just expected you to look.... worse.”

“You aren’t doing yourself any favours,” Veronica glares at him, ripping open his mask. “Get over here.”

“You know what I meant,” he says as she puts the mask on him, fixing it around his nose and mouth. “I saw Nicole without makeup once and I swear I just thought that’s what you all looked like.”

Veronica can’t help but crack a smile at that, biting her lip quickly in a failed attempt to conceal it. “You know Nicole is my friend, right?”

Niall smirks back. “Sort of your friend. Swear the only one you get on with is Liam by the looks you give the others.”

“I don’t give anyone looks,” Veronica replies, holding her face over the steam.

“You give everyone looks.”

“It’s called resting bitch face. I can’t help it. To be honest, I look right through most people.”

“Not helping your case, sweetheart. This mask thingy tastes awful.”

“Well, you’re not supposed to eat it, stupid.”

Veronica puts on her own mask, which had a tiger on it.

“Yours is a tiger? What’s mine then!”

“Guess,” Veronica smirks, pushing her nose up with her thumb and letting out a little _oink!_.

Niall pouts, mirthful cerulean eyes betraying his pooched out lips. They’re very thin, yet that somehow doesn’t take away from his attractiveness. She has to admit it now, after spending an extended period of time with him, he’s not half bad. Underneath his charming, boyish exterior is just more charming boyishness. He’s so simple, and that by itself is desirable. Veronica is so done with complicated boys and their foolish games.

Veronica plops down on a barstool and watches him put the loose tea into the pot of boiling water.

“How do you take yours?”

“No milk. Three spoons of sugar.”

“Jesus Christ,” Niall swears at her, doing as told. “Do you want any tea with your sugar?”

“Shut up bitch.”

Niall puts three spoonfuls of sugar in his cup as well. Asshole.

While the tea steeps, Veronica demonstrates how to take his mask off and gently massage the face.

“Is this the luxurious life you always live? Face masks and tea every day?”

“Not quite. There’s a reason I asked _you_  to make the tea. I’ll burn the whole house down if I even look at the stove.”

Niall clicks his tongue at her as he strains the liquid into both of their cups. “Shame. I can’t cook either.”

Veronica takes the mug of hot liquid from him, smiling as she holds it under her nose and lets the steam warm her nose. Her eyes fall closed contentedly, the orange and rose scent immediately relaxing her. When they flutter open a few moments later, Niall is staring at her with a blank expression.

“Is there something on my face?” Her head cocks slightly to the side in confusion as she sets down her cup, covering the lower half of her face with the paws of her sweater.

“No, nothing’s on your face,” he answers slowly, voice distant. He turns around then, taking his mug before sitting down next to her. He stares intently at the herbal tea in his cup. He looks pretty down, and it kills Veronica because that’s not a way that Niall Horan should ever look. She puts a hand on his shoulder, turning him on his barstool so that he faces her.

“Are you alright?”

His hazel-blue eyes meet hers, and he sighs in defeat. “It’s nothing. I just realised it’s never gonna happen.”

“What’s never gonna happen?” He gives her a look and it dawns on her what he means. “Like you and I?”

“Yeah.”

“What made all this come up?”

He looks away from her again, eyes trained on the flashing white numbers of the digital clock on the wall behind her. “You’re you and perfect and stuff, and I’m just some annoying-“

Veronica doesn’t know what over comes her, but she leans in quickly, pressing her lips to his. She pulls away before he can kiss back, a red flame of embarrassment spreading from ears to her cheeks, across the bridge of her nose and even down her neck as they stare wide eyed at each other, even Veronica incapable of believing what she’s just done.

“Sorry.”

“Are you really? Y’know.... sorry?” He looks just as red faced as she does, his summer tan doing nothing to hide the cherry blush up to his forehead.

Veronica thinks about it for a moment then slowly shakes her head.

“Do you want to.... do it again?”

Veronica nods very quickly, eyelashes tickling her cheeks as they flutter shut and his lips are on hers once more. His lips are boyish and chapped and nothing at all like Marcel’s plush soft ones, so for that she’s thankful. Their lips slot together this time as they establish a rhythm, his hands moving from his lap to gently cup the sides of her face. She’d never have imagined kissing Niall to be so.... dreamy.

“For fuck’s sake, who is this?”

For once, Veronica is a little upset that her kiss has been once again interrupted by her brother. She spins her chair around and glares at Zayn. He has this look like he thinks she’s some floozy, and well, she’s absolutely not. The urge to prove him wrong over comes any semblance of logic or reasoning as she puts her hands on her hips and indignantly states, “He’s my boyfriend for your information.”

She gets the shocked look she was aiming to get for about two milliseconds before Zayn is marching over to Niall and inspecting him to her absolute mortification. She spins around in her chair, body catching up to her twisted neck. “I’ll tell mom you’re fucking Liam if you don’t leave us alone.” She won’t, but she still revels in the way he instantly backs off of Niall with a glare and retreats from whence he came (hell).

“Boyfriend, huh?” Niall laughs, clearly gaining amusement from her embarrassed blush. “Is that an offer?”

Marcel instantly comes to mind, the way he looked at her and spat those words that she deserved, that told her she’d officially destroyed whatever chance she had with him. With him out of the question, she considers a new question. Why shouldn’t she just be with someone who wants to be with her for once?

“Only if you accept it, otherwise it was just a throwaway comment that we can ignore forever and never bring up again.” She already knows his answer, and just like that she’s someone’s again.

••••

She and Niall got out of her car Monday morning six minutes before class started. By the time they’d arrived, it was already packed so they’d had to park in the very back in the gravel part, which meant a bit of carrying over the dusty rocks. Veronica now knows that she _lives_ for boys carrying her.

She’s a weak ass bitch and temporarily reverted back to her old ways so today she’s wearing a baby pink dress with pumps that have cute little bows on them that she absolutely could not get in the dirt and rocks. Sadly, Niall couldn’t carry her all the way to class without everyone seeing her ass in her dress so he had to set her down once the asphalt picked up again.

Once they’d gotten in the school, they’d only had time for a little peck before both running off in opposite directions to get to class on time. Veronica only _just_  makes it to her home room class, barging in right as the teacher stands up to close the door. Harry and Liam give her weird looks like there’s something on her face, but Harry’s opinion can choke on several dicks.

“You look... different.”

“Do I?” Veronica replies boredly to Harry while examining her bright red nails left over from homecoming.

“Yeah, like. I dunno. Your aura is different,” Liam adds.

“You’re reading my aura?” she smirks, snickering at the look Liam gives her.

“You know what I mean. Like your vibe. It’s like... I dunno... less frantic.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Zayn too much. You’re starting to sound like him.”

Harry nods, agreeing with Veronica. “You should stop.”

Veronica rolls her eyes at Harry, thoroughly over biting her tongue for the girl’s sake. “You say that like you’re next in line or something.”

Liam covers her surprised laugh with a cough into her elbow, big brown eyes widened comically as she peeks over her arm at Veronica.

“Same goes for you so watch your mouth.” Harry’s green eyes narrow in Veronica’s direction, but she just scoffs and waves her off.

“Oh, come off it. We’re in high school not the White House. Enough with the politics. It’s exhausting.”

Harry’s mouth drops, perfect eyebrows cinching so that her face is somewhere between shock and offence. She doesn’t say anything after that, turning around in her chair like the smart girl Veronica knows she is.

Liam’s giving Veronica a look like she has three heads before blowing out a breath of air and turning to the front as well. And, yeah, that was a little bold for Veronica, but as Harry said the other day, Veronica has everything she wants. Since she has all the leverage in the relationship now that she’s secured Niall, there’s no reason to act subservient to Harry.

••••

Niall insists on walking her to the cafeteria. Actually, he insists on walking her everywhere, but she only obliges when there’s not a threat of his teachers locking him out of the classroom because he’s late.

Veronica knows what it looks like. It looks like exactly what it is for just about the first time ever. When Niall reaches for her hand, Veronica actually lets him take it this time instead of curving him and it feels _weird_. But kinda good. But weird.

They don’t even make it to the table before Eleanor is spitting her food back into her bowl, eyes wide and locked on their hands as she not-so-discreetly nudges Nicole, who shoots Veronica an _‘oh really’_ look. Veronica ends up having to sit by Eleanor across from Liam because Harry has Cam at the table and there isn’t room for Niall to sit beside her if she sits by Liam.

Her ass doesn’t have time to hit the bench before Nicole is grilling them.

“So you two finally came to your senses, huh?”

Liam glares at Veronica with no real heat behind it. She’s probably more confused than angry that Veronica didn’t text her about it as soon as it happened. Veronica is just trying to avoid all opportunities for the people around her to say ‘I told you so’.

“I’m not justifying that with an answer.”

“So yes.”

Veronica goes to shrug in a continuation of her aloof act, but Niall hooks his arm over her shoulder, pulling her into his side. “Oh, come off it.”

Veronica feels the hot tendrils of embarrassment creep up her neck as nobody actually needs to say ‘I told you so’ to say ‘I told you so.’ Their shit-eating grins say it all. Well, most of them are grinning. Harry is pointedly staring at her and eating her salad languidly. When Veronica makes eye contact for the fifth time, Harry just cocks her eyebrow. Is that a challenge? Yeah, that seems like a challenge.

Veronica breaks off the eye contact, looking down at her and Niall’s lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and celery sticks that he’d made for them that morning. She’s not entirely sure if couples usually do that for each other or if Niall is just really putting 150% into being with her.

She picks up a sandwich, smiling at Niall as she takes a bite to let him know he did good. There’s actually a lot of peanut butter, but she keeps smiling. This is.... awkward.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again. I’ve been looking forward to writing the last part for forever but as soon as I started writing I just wasn’t feeling it. 
> 
> If it’s any consolation, I’ve been writing the fuck out of future chapters so once I get past these next couple of chapters it will be smooth sailing


	22. Chapter 22

“Okay, so our options are pretty limited,” Louise starts, pacing back and forth in front of the girls. They’re at her house for their first official practise. Usually, they steer clear of Louise’s house because it’s a place of chaos and terror due to her four little sisters, but today Louise has trapped them in her eldest sister Lottie’s room by pushing a dresser in front of the door, so they’re good to go.

 

“Why?” Veronica asks, Louise giving her an impish smirk.

 

“Because you’re a horrible dancer. You collapsed a whole fucking cheer pyramid you weren’t even in.”

 

“Walked right into that one,” Nicole snickers, recounting that horrifying day. “Figuratively and literally.”

 

“Fuck both of you.”

 

Liam pats her back consolingly. At least one person in this room is loyal. Eleanor even laughed, and she’s been making a concentrated effort to ignore Louise for the last week. Veronica wishes they would just fuck or get over it, but she guesses since Eleanor’s parents are homophobic pieces of trash it’s not that simple.

 

“I was thinking something simple. A bit of footwork... a couple synchronised gestures... poses. The most important thing is that we cover the whole stage so it doesn’t look awkward. It’s gonna be a lot easier without Harry because we can do pyramid and staggered formations with just five of us.”

 

“Alright, ladies. Let’s get to it.”

 

••••

 

She settles her body against Niall’s mentally preparing herself. She didn’t think he’d ask so soon, but then again he has been gagging for it since forever. Niall flicks through the movie options, asking her what she thinks they should watch.

 

She thinks for a minute before smiling excitedly. “How do you feel about subtitles and cheesy overly dramatic everything?”

 

“Whatever you want.”

 

Veronica excitedly types in the movie name, clicking on it as soon as it pops up.

 

“Happy New Year?” Niall reads the gaudy font aloud. He gives it a few more minutes before Veronica’s second favourite scene comes on. “Jesus titty fucking christ,” he chokes through a laugh as buckets of water are thrown over the man’s rippling abs, washing away the mud.

 

“He’s hot! Leave me alone! Wait until you see the Mohini. You’ll be sprung as fuck. _I_ would suck her titties.”

 

Niall guffaws at her crudeness, pulling her inside his arm, waiting for this ‘Mohini’ to appear. “Is that her on the motorcycle?”

 

“No, not yet. You’ll know it’s her when you see her.”

 

“But all I can see is you,” he smiles down at her.

 

“Shut the fuck up,” Veronica laughs before giving him a little kiss that turns into a not so little kiss. She doesn’t know how long they sit there kissing, but she’s getting a little impatient. Veronica leans into him, strategically brushing her hand over his crotch as she moves it to hold onto his other thigh for balance. His lips stutter for a second, but he doesn’t seem to be making any moves back, his one hand rested gently on her back.

 

Veronica decides to take the chance and slides her hand up his thigh until there’s no question of what she’s trying to do. She barely feels the semi in his pants before he pulls her back suddenly with an alarmed look on his face.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I was gonna... blow you?” Veronica responds unsurely, confused. “Did I do something wrong? Isn’t this what you want?”

 

Niall’s sparse eyebrows shoot up as she says this. “What?! No! Well, _yes_ —“ He wiggles them. “—but not now!”

 

“You invited me over to watch a movie?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“And you actually meant.... you want to watch a movie?”

 

“Yes, Veronica. Where did you even get the idea that I-“

 

“Well, I’ve never been invited over for a movie and ended up watching a movie! It’s not my fault!” Veronica pouts, crossing her arms. She falls back onto the couch, trying to mask her embarrassment with petulance because it seems better in the moment.

 

Niall, in all of his understanding, doesn’t fall into her fight starting trap. He just looks down at her where she’s slumped and speaks calmly.“I’m not gonna treat you like that. We can forget about this happening. Sorry for making it awkward, but you’re worth more than that.”

 

Veronica can’t help blushing, looking up at Niall’s sincere eyes. She releases a sigh before cuddling into his side. “Okay.”

 

“Now, what the _fuck_ is going on?” Niall asks in utter confusion at the men in tutus acting like idiots on the screen. Veronica backtracks and explains the parts they missed.

 

“This is ridiculous.”

 

“But SRK and Deepika make it all worth it.”

 

“SR-who?”

 

“The water splashy guy with the beautiful hair.” Niall rolls his eyes, and she laughs. A few more minutes pass by and he’s leaned in, fully enraptured. “Jesus now they’re crying. I’m getting whiplash.”

 

Veronica laughs, excited because she knows what part is coming up. It’s her absolute favourite part.

 

“Shit,” he mumbles as the first shot of Mohini fills the screen. That’s Veronica’s motherfucking girl crush right there. She’s about as close to drooling as he is.

 

“She kind of looks like Jade from the side.”

 

“Fuck, introduce me to her. Bye bitch,” Veronica replies while staring at the screen.

 

Niall throws a pillow in her face then. Veronica has yet to meet this Jade. She only got a glimpse of her back at homecoming. Veronica’s not saying she would hit it, but she wouldn’t _not_  hit it. Like if it was a threesome situation, hells yeah. But Veronica truly doesn’t swing that way. Although sometimes she wishes she did because guys are fucking stupid. Then again, she’d probably be in love with Liam and it would be all one sided and depressing.

 

Not that she hasn’t already been in plenty one sided depressing relationships....

 

Ow. She hurt herself with her own train of thought. Maybe it’s better if she just focuses on the movie.

 

••••

 

This Halloween is going to be a amazing for several reasons. One, it’s gonna be great simply because it is Veronica’s favourite holiday. She gets to cosplay without people calling it cosplay. Two, Halloween this year falls on a Saturday so no one has to worry about hangovers. And three, she’s with Niall now, and he let her pick their costumes. He’s going as Thor, and she’s going as slutty Loki.

 

She’s not gonna lie. She’s had this costume in the back of her closet for a year now. It’s, essentially, a pleather bikini that’s she’s wearing with thigh high leather boots, brass plated cuffs, and this amazing cape she had custom made. Her headpiece was also specially made for her. It’s just a headband with the signature horns, but it really brings the whole look together. Niall, on the other hand, bought his costume from the Halloween store and is sporting a horrid plastic Mjolnir.

 

He’s arguably cuter in the cheap costume than he would be in some custom piece. It’s endearing.

 

And of course, they’re a hit at the party they go to. It’s at Cameron’s house. There’s a lot of people from the college there, and guys keep stopping to pose with her for pictures. Honestly, she loves the attention. Niall is also getting a kick out of having the hottest date at the party.

 

She’s only run into Louise and Stan so far, Louise dressed as an evil nun with bloody eyes and Stan dressed as Bobby from Supernatural. Veronica has decided she quite likes Stan. The only reason she knows that Liam is out there in the world dressed as Hermione is because she ran into her and Zayn as she was leaving. Then she caught a glimpse of Eleanor in her sexy nurse costume, but she has yet to see any of the other girls.

 

Scratch that. Nicole is prancing towards her in an obscene Rainbow Dash costume. She would worry more for Nicole, if she wasn’t already used to her being a fucking freak.

 

“You look fuckin hot,” Nicole shouts over the music, doing a little dance on the spot.

 

“I would say you too, but you’re dressed as a horse.”

 

“A naughty horse... Nialler, take a picture of me with her so I can send it to Ed!”

 

And great. She’s not overly thrilled about what Ed’s going to do with that photo. Veronica is at least 85% Nicole is actively collecting spank bank material for him at this party, as she immediately bounces once she has her picture and walks over to sexy cop.

 

“Let’s get drinks,” Niall says to her, and get drinks they do. Veronica doesn’t want to get wasted, wasted. She just wants to get, like, medium wasted. Like have a good time wasted, but not grind on strangers wasted.

 

She’s about four drinks in when Harry stumbles over to her, and of course, she’s the devil. Literally. She has the little red horns and everything. She actually looks really good, so, naturally, drunk Veronica yells it at her. She’s too drunk to care about grudges and bullshit. Harry is a cunt, yeah, but she’s also her best friend.

 

Harry apparently feels the same, hugging Veronica and telling her how nice her abs look. Veronica totally contoured them, but she’s not telling anyone that tonight. Niall looks on fondly, expression playfully souring when she tells him he looks like a dollar general Jaime Lannister.

 

“Let’s dance,” Harry yells not two seconds later, grabbing Veronica who grabs Niall. All three of them move onto the dance floor, Veronica sandwiched between the two as Harry drapes herself over Veronica’s front.

 

And while Veronica can’t dance.... she can grind like a pro. So she does, muscle memory doing all the work as she pushes her ass against Niall’s crotch. It’s only been a few days since the No Blow Incident, but Niall seems to be going along with it. His hands rest awkwardly on her hips as she rolls her body against his in a way that most men have to pay for.

 

Harry disappears after half an hour of straight filth, leaving Veronica and Niall to their own devices. So Veronica does what she does best, turning around in Niall’s arms and attacking his lips. Or rather lack thereof. Veronica does not care. She does not give one single fuck. She’s Loki, she’s drunk, and she’s making out with Thor.

 

“Is this incest?” she mumbles against his lips, Niall breaking away to guffaw loudly.

 

“You’re pissed, darlin.”

 

“No I’m not?”

 

“Drunk, Veronica. You’re plastered.”

 

“Yer plastered, matey,” Veronica mocks in a half pirate/half irish accent, falling against his chest.

 

“Yeah, we’re gonna have to get you home soon.”

 

“No, wait,” Harry slurs, reappearing at their sides. She’s holding two drinks for them.

 

“Sorry, can’t have anymore. Gotta drive soon.”

 

Veronica shrugs then, taking both cups from Harry and chugging the concoctions consecutively. While sober Veronica is  very picky about her alcohol, drunk Veronica will drink motor oil if you hand it to her in a solo cup. When she finally comes up, Niall is staring at her horrified. She just tosses the plastic cups and belches in response. Yeah. It’s definitely time to go.

 

“Can you take me home too? I don’t know where Cam and Dyls are. Please,” Harry begs, hanging off Niall’s arm and it surprises Veronica how much she doesn’t care. If anyone touched Marcel like that... she would probably combust.

 

Niall sighs, but walks them both out of the still raging party. Neither of the girls can walk very well in their heels at this point, so he has to shuffle his feet along as they grip onto his arms for support. It’s not exactly how he envisioned his night ending, but oh well.

 

He manages to get them both in the backseat of his mom’s RAV4.

 

“If either of you vomit, I’m rubbing your noses in it, got it?” The girls just burst into giggles, huddling together.

 

They sit there and giggle horrible things to each other about all of the trashy college girls they saw at the party. One deadass had her pussy out. The bumblebee costume did absolutely nothing to conceal it. The girls giggle about her labia all the way to Harry’s house.

 

“Okay, Harry, do you need me to walk you in? Where are your keys?”

 

Harry looks at him in a daze before she finally processes his words. Her hand shoots into her bra, digging under her minimal cleavage until it re-emerges with a key.

 

“You should...” Harry loses her train of thought as she starts climbing out of the car. Then she remembers. “You should come in me. No, wait- You should, come with in me- _in with me_. We can sleep over!”

 

“Sleep over!!” Veronica cheers, opening the car door. She goes to hop out but ends up tumbling into the grass by the curb. Niall about has a heart attack, picking her up and inspecting her for any injuries.

 

When he’s sure she’s okay, he grabs her shoulders and speaks very slowly. “Are you sure you want to stay here?”

 

“Yeah!”

 

“And you won’t leave. Both of you will stay here.”

 

“Yeah, Niall, jeez.” She wiggles out of his grip, swaying back and forth on her feet to the door behind Harry. When she turns around, Niall is watching them eyes full of concern. After about five minutes of Harry jabbing the air with her key, he jogs up to the door and lets them in.

 

“Be safe, okay?” He gives Veronica a chaste kiss before walking back to the SUV and driving off.

 

Veronica and Harry stumble through the front door, a giggling mess of limbs and heels. Two birds of a feather, they both head for the decorative mirror in the foyer, smoothing hair and wiping away lipgloss smudges.

 

“Let’s take selfies,” Harry giggles, pulling out her phone as Veronica oversteps and bumps into her. “One, two, three, my asshole’s bleached!”

 

Veronica bursts out laughing right as the flash goes off, Harry howling at her reaction. That is, until the light flips on.

 

And, oh. It’s Marcel. In a wolverine t shirt and plaid pyjama bottoms. Looking soft as fuck.

 

“Harry, it’s three in the morning. If mom-“

 

In the blink of an eye, Harry’s whole demeanour shifts. “Shut the fuck up,” Harry growls, rolling her eyes as she stumbles past him, shoulder checking him.

 

Veronica looks around awkwardly, checking out the elegant seashell pattern on the ceiling. Has that always been there? For such a plain person, Anne is so boujie.

 

“Did you just call my mom boujie?”

 

Veronica’s eyes snap to Marcel’s then, drunk brain taking a second to process the actual words. It’s been so long since he’s actually talked to her. “Um, did I?”

 

He gives her a weird look, like he’s assessing exactly how wasted she is. The answer is somewhere between kissing her friends for attention and dropping to her knees to blow Marcel in the hallway. She’s in her stage 2, which is giggly and slightly horny. Stage 3 and 4 are what she tries to avoid because they are full slut mode. Thank god she still has enough self-control to maintain a semblance of casual conversation.

 

“Alright, lets get you two some water and a bed. You guys are trashed.”

 

Veronica can’t help herself, bursting out into a fit of giggles as her thought process resets. “I’m not trashed. I’m Loki, son of Odin, God of Mischief,” she recites as he takes her by the arm. It’s just then that he seems to notice her costume, a red blush spreading across his cheeks as he drags her into the kitchen where Harry is already trying (unsuccessfully) to open a can of pineapples.

 

Veronica knew she made the right choice going with slutty Loki instead of accurate Loki. She can cosplay as accurate Loki when she’s wrinkly and old. For now it’s tits out, clits out. Wait.

 

Veronica stands by the kitchen island as Marcel drags Harry off the floor and onto a barstool.

 

“Get offa me,” she whines, throwing her head back like a little child. “You always- you always do this.”

 

Marcel just ignores her, going over to the cabinet to grab two sippy cups. He fills them both with water and hands one off to each of the girls.

 

Veronica looks at the cup then looks at Marcel, confused as fuck. She means to ask him why he gave her a baby’s cup but she just ends up saying, “I’m 16?”

 

“Drink it.”

 

“It’s a little cup.”

 

“Drink.”

 

Veronica glares at him as she takes a sip.

 

“I’m not cleaning up after you two. No spills, no problem.”

 

“Fuck you,” Harry gripes, head resting on the counter.

 

“Fuck you too,” Marcel replies, picking up the can opener and can of pineapples off the floor.

 

Veronica kind of loves it when he cusses just out of the blue. It’s kind of hot. And, oh no. Those last drinks must be hitting because she can feel stage 3 on the horizon. Hopefully, it doesn’t get any worse because she can’t guarantee she won’t throw herself at him in front of Harry. She’s only been to stage 3 once and all it ended up in was Percy (unsuccessfully) trying to get her off in the backseat of his car. That and a mouth full of cum. Wasn’t a very satisfying night overall.

 

Veronica leans against the island, sucking down her water before stage 3 can hit. She _needs_ to be in control. She has a boyfriend. A very nice boyfriend. Who won’t let her blow him. Because he’s nice.

 

“Hey, sexy.”

 

Veronica starts, whipping around to find Ed, in a giant hot dog suit, and her brother, dressed as a vampire, who is currently glaring at Ed like he wants him dead. Ed seems to be smashed, whereas Zayn is almost if not completely sober.

 

“Fuck off, skeeze bag,” Veronica smirks, lowkey enjoying the attention. All he could see from that angle is the cape anyway so she knows he’s just giving Zayn a hard time. Now that he can properly see her, his eyes are pretty much glued to her tits, although they are kind of on display for that very purpose.

 

“Are you drunk?”

 

“ _Hell yeah_ ,” she replies, draping herself over her brother for support. She burps on his cheek before laughing. He looks at her kind of disgusted, before something dawns in him.

 

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

 

“Home? He dropped us off.”

 

Zayn visibly deflates, the preemptive rage in his eyes quickly dying out. He’s so suspicious of Niall. Probably because Veronica has historically trash taste in guys.

 

“Guys...”

 

Everyone looks over to where Ed is peeling off one of Harry’s eyelashes. Harry, on the other hand, is passed out cold on the counter.

 

“We should draw on her face.”

 

Marcel just walks around the island, handing Harry’s cup of water to Ed. “Drink this and try not to do anything stupid. I’ve got to get her in bed before mom comes down. The rest of you should probably leave.”

 

“Alright,” Zayn replies, then looking at Ed. “You’re on your own. I have to get frost giant barbie home.”

 

“I’m not the real Veronica. The real Veronica is at home in bed. You’ve been bamboo-“ She yelps as Zayn takes her by the hand and starts tugging her away, but she swears she sees Marcel crack a smile before she’s dragged out.

 

“I can’t believe you’re drunk. Mom is going to kill me.”

 

“I’ve been drunk before. Why would she care?”

 

“Possibly because you’re walking around in a leather bikini. Anyone could take advantage of you.”

 

“Who cares about those assholes? Tits out clits, out. Wait. No-”

 

“Just get in the car.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I finally updated. My depressive writers block finally fucked off now that I’m out of school for the summer. 
> 
> Im probably gonna go back and edit this whole fic. Nothing major. Just fixing little things like Veronica’s inconsistent eye color and grammatical errors.
> 
> Anyway, sorry there’s no reference image for Veronica’s costume. I can’t draw for shit (I tried) and nobody has executed slutty Loki to my standards yet.
> 
> Feel free to leave your thoughts :))))
> 
> P.s. someone’s getting their dick sucked in the next chapter bc I am a whore


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